Sen. Mike Lee says he won’t vote yes to fund the government until a border deal is in place

As Congress considers another short-term spending bill — while working on the 2024 appropriations bills behind closed doors — some Republicans, including Utah Sen. Mike Lee, are making their stance clear: No immigration reform? No government funding.

During a press conference Wednesday, a group of GOP lawmakers — Lee, along with Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., Montana Rep. Matt Rosendale, Florida Rep. Cory Mills, Illinois Rep. Mary Miller and others — made it clear that they will use all the tools at their disposal to block funding for the U.S. government, or for foreign military aid, until a border deal is secured.

Lee said that President Joe Biden has the authority to secure the border, but the migrant crisis continues because there’s “a willful desire to not enforce that legislation.”

He pointed to the start of the “uncontrolled wave of illegal migration” of people seeking asylum, which began after Biden took office. The U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s data shows that at least 6 million people have entered the U.S. over the border under the current administration. The agency has released more than 2.3 million migrants into the U.S., as The Washington Post reported.

In December alone, more than 300,000 migrants crossed the border, marking an all-time monthly high in three years. CBS News, which obtained government data, reported that the numbers also showed a record number of families traveling with children.

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Lee noted that federal law does not include a “cognizable unconditional right to asylum.” Instead, it is an authority granted to the Secretary of Homeland Security.

He pushed back on the Biden administration’s current catch-and-release process, which is not a part of federal law.

“When you hear (Biden) speak, you will hear him speak in terms that will lead you to think that all this is the inevitable inexorable result of federal law that leaves him no choice but to unleash 10 million illegal immigrants on the American people,” Lee said. “Now this is his choice.”

The Utah senator proposed reinstating the Remain in Mexico policy, implemented during the Trump administration, which requires migrants to wait in Mexico until their asylum court date. He said it would allow the Biden administration to send a clear message to incoming migrants to not come to the U.S., and instead visit a U.S. embassy and figure out other legal options to enter the country.

He recalled working at the U.S.-Mexico border in Texas 30 years ago, before the crisis at the southern border. Lee said he “lived and worked among the poorest of the poor, many of them recent immigrants themselves, some documented some not.”

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“No one fears uncontrolled waves of illegal immigration more than the poorest of the poor recent immigrants,” the senator said. “It is their homes, it is their neighborhoods, it is their children’s schools, it is their jobs that are most put at risk by this.”

Lee acknowledged that the U.S. is a country of immigrants. But, he said, it is also a country of laws.

“We can be both. I hope and demand that we always will be,” he said before pressing Biden to shut down the flow of migrants at the border. He also vowed to not aid in funding the government without immigration reform.

Scott said the only way to get a border security deal would be “to hold up whatever we can, whether it’s Ukraine funding, whatever it is they want, and say we don’t get that funding unless we get a secure border,” according to Fox News.

“Otherwise … we’re going to continue to have an open border,” he said.

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• Senate leaders propose passing another short-term bill, but face resistance from House Speaker Mike Johnson

Congress faces two fast-approaching deadlines: The first is Jan. 19, when funding for federal programs related to transportation, housing, agriculture, energy, veterans and military construction runs out, followed by Feb. 2, when the stopgap bill balancing other programs, including defense, expires.

House and Senate leadership struck an agreement over a $1.59 trillion topline for fiscal year 2024 on Sunday. They also made a side deal of roughly $70 million. But, on Tuesday, Republican Senate leadership said a short-term spending bill will be necessary, as the Deseret News reported.

Senate Republican Whip John Thune, S.D., said it would be “unrealistic” for Congress to pass the spending package that congressional leaders agreed upon over the weekend before the two fast-approaching deadlines.