White House Plan To Reduce ICE Deportations Sparks Fury

Senior Republicans reacted with fury after White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) would "be forced to reduce its [migrant] removal operations" after Senate Republicans blocked a bipartisan immigration and foreign aid agreement backed by the Biden administration.

Speaking to reporters on Air Force One, Jean-Pierre said: "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."

Stating that Congress was blocking much-needed border security funding, she added: "Here is what that means: ICE would be forced to reduce its removal operations, its total detention capacity, and more. 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. They have picked partisan politics over our national security."

Responding on X, formerly Twitter, Republican Senator Tom Cotton accused the Biden administration of deliberately stoking illegal immigration.

He shared a Fox News story about Jean-Pierre's remarks, adding: "This is blackmail. And an admission that Biden controls the level of illegal immigration. The entire border crisis is by design."

Cotton's post was reposted by Texas Governor Greg Abbott, who added: "This is spot on."

Newsweek reached out to the White House press office at 3:20 a.m. ET by email. This article will be updated if a comment is received.

The $118 billion Emergency National Security Supplemental Appropriations Bill, which was designed to reform immigration policy and provide additional security assistance to American allies including Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan, was blocked by Senate Republicans in a procedural vote on Wednesday.

The 370-page agreement included an additional $20 billion in new funding for border security, $60 billion to support Ukraine, $14 billion for Israel and $10 million in humanitarian aid for Ukraine, Gaza and the West Bank. It also contained a provision that would effectively shut down the border to irregular migrants should the number crossing average 5,000 per day for a week, or hit 8,500 in a single day, meaning any migrants who arrived after the threshold had been hit would be unable to apply for asylum and be immediately deported.

Had the legislation passed, Congress it would have raised the eligibility threshold for asylum applications and created an additional 50,000 immigration visas for each of the next five years, boosting legal immigration by a total of 250,000.

Republican Senator James Lankford, Democrat Chris Murphy and independent Senator Kyrsten Sinema negotiated the agreement. However, despite its bipartisan origins, the legislation was immediately rejected by Republican Speaker Mike Johnson who said it would be "dead on arrival" in the GOP-controlled House of Representatives.

Donald Trump, the frontrunner for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, condemned the package stating "only a fool, or a radical left Democrat" would vote for it.

The Senate Republican rejection on Wednesday sparked an angry response from President Biden who alleged that GOP lawmakers were "walking away because they've got Donald Trump calling and threatening them."

Senator Mitt Romney, one of the few Republicans who voted to advance the legislation, told news publication Semafor he was "deeply disappointed" by his GOP colleagues walking away from the deal.

He said: "Politics used to be the art of the possible. Now it's the art of the impossible. We've gone from the sublime to the ridiculous."