Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, speaks during a news conference on the budget bill, Tuesday, Dec. 20.
Photo:
Mariam Zuhaib/Associated Press
The Senate passed its $1.65 trillion omnibus spending bill on Thursday, with 18 Republicans joining every Democrat. We’ve told you about the bill’s ugly details, but the moment shouldn’t pass without noting that it does nothing to reform a broken immigration system that is overwhelming the border region.
Senators couldn’t muster a majority to improve border enforcement, but they did make a pair of half-hearted gestures. Utah Republican Sen.
Mike Lee
insisted on an amendment that would have cut homeland-security funding unless President Biden extended Title 42, the pandemic-era policy that lets the federal government expel certain illegal migrants. Title 42 was set to end this week, but it received a temporary reprieve from the Supreme Court that could end at any time.
Democrats voted down Mr. Lee’s amendment, 50-47. But then Democratic Sens.
Jon Tester
and
Kyrsten Sinema
—both up for re-election in 2024—offered one of their own that would have restored Title 42 with benchmarks for its eventual end. This was designed as political cover, and it failed 87-10.
This happened even as thousands of migrants have amassed near border cities such as El Paso, Texas, waiting for Title 42’s end. They know that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) releases thousands of migrants into the country each day, saying it lacks the capacity to remove or detain them. Without a legal method of expedited removal, the crossers could become tens of thousands daily.
Title 42 was issued under a federal authority to control pandemics and ideally should have been allowed to lapse long ago. Yet states are desperate to save it because the Biden Administration has only a shadow of a plan to replace it. DHS Secretary
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