GOP lawmaker wants government shut down over illegal immigration flood

A Republican lawmaker who visited the southern border with other GOP members in Texas called for a government shutdown over the surge of illegal migrants entering the U.S.

Rep. Mary Miller of Illinois recorded a video of herself, posted Friday on X, standing in front of the concertina wire that Texas authorities unraveled on the U.S. side of the border in Eagle Pass.

“I’m down here at the border with Speaker [Mike] Johnson and some other members. And it is a catastrophe. It is so alarming,” she said.

She wrote, “If [President] Biden won’t shut down the border invasion, Congress must shut down the corrupt government that is funding it!”

Congress is under a tight deadline to fund the federal government. When lawmakers return next week, they have just 10 days to avoid a partial government shutdown, with the first deadline Jan. 19 and the second one Feb. 2.

Mr. Johnson, Louisiana Republican, spearheaded a trip of dozens of House Republicans to the border in Texas on Wednesday, giving them a firsthand look at the devastation of unprecedented illegal immigration and calling the situation “an unmitigated disaster.”

Taking stock of the record-breaking numbers, the lawmakers said they won’t accept any major spending deals on Capitol Hill that don’t put border security first.

As they announced the start of impeachment proceedings against Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, one committee chairman labeled him “the greatest domestic threat to the national security and the safety of the American people.”

Mr. Mayorkas, who appeared on Fox News when the lawmakers were at the border, said of a report that 70% of illegal migrants were often released into the U.S., “It would not surprise me at all. I know the data. And I will tell you that when individuals are released, they are released into immigration enforcement proceedings. They are on alternatives to detention, and we have returned or removed a record number of individuals. We are enforcing the laws that Congress has passed.”

White House spokesman Andrew Bates said Mr. Biden has tried to get Republicans to agree to a major legalization program for illegal immigrants.

“House Republicans have obstructed his reform proposal and consistently voted against his unprecedented border security funding year after year, hamstringing our border security in the name of extreme, partisan demands,” Mr. Bates said.

The numbers show a different picture.

When the Biden administration took office in 2021, Customs and Border Protection was funded at $19.3 billion, according to data from the Congressional Research Service. Mr. Biden proposed cutting $2.9 billion in his first budget, which would have left CBP at $16.4 billion in 2022.

When asked if the administration would accept the extra funding on the condition that the funds could be used only for detention and removal, but not release into the country, Mr. Mayorkas demurred. He replied that the funds were necessary for other DHS resources, including border patrol agents, technology, detention space and immigration judges “so justice can be administered more swiftly.”