The White House announced today that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) will be forced to reduce enforcement operations due to budgetary constraints.
White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters: “Because congressional Republicans are choosing partisan politics over our national security and refusing to pass the bipartisan national security agreement that includes significant border reforms and funding, over the coming weeks, ICE will be forced to reduce operations because of budget shortfalls.”
She added: “When ICE can’t conduct these operations, our national security and public safety will be harmed. Speaker Johnson and congressional Republicans should be held accountable. This was their choice.”
This is called extortion. https://t.co/CS24Hts1Gu
— Mike Lee (@BasedMikeLee) February 8, 2024
U.S. Senator Mike Lee (R-UT), who has called for the resignation of Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) because he worked with Majority Senate Leader Chuck Schumer on the bipartisan bill, responded to the White House announcement: “This is called extortion.”
According to The Hill, Lee said that President Biden “has more than enough tools at his disposal” to stop the flood of migrants (at the U.S.-Mexico border) and argued it was not caused by “inadequate legislation on the books.”
However, during the Trump administration, Lee supported legislative reforms and in 2019 co-sponsored a bill with future Vice President, Senator Kamala Harris (D-CA), “to remove the per-country cap on employment-based green cards and raise the cap on family-based green cards from 7% to 15%.” Lee said at the time: “Immigration is often a contentious issue but we should not delay progress in areas where there is bipartisan consensus just because we have differences in other areas.”
