Congressional lawmakers have spent the last few weeks trying to negotiate a year-end spending bill that would pair military aid with massive overhauls to border and immigration policy. 

The latest round of negotiations came to a close Sunday, with no resolution in sight. Republican lawmakers are asking for policy overhauls like mandatory detention for migrants and an increase in the use of a fast-tracked deportation process.

But Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, policy director at the American Immigration Council, says talks are stalled — as some Republicans ask for a larger role in negotiations. 

"Similarly we’ve seen Democrats increasingly express alarm at the possibility of passing the harshest immigration enforcement bill in 30 years, in exchange for about 6 months of Ukraine funding," he said. 

Lawmakers have been mulling an October request from President Biden for billions of dollars in military aid for Ukraine and Israel, plus funds for border security. 

Sen. Lindsey Graham told NBC that the two parties would not be able to make a deal by the end of the year.

Reichlin-Melnick says many of the policy changes on the table, like limiting or banning asylum for migrants who pass through a third country, along with policies that have already been in place, would not actually have an impact on the number of people arriving to the border. Instead, they just make it harder to win asylum cases in court years later. 

"Expedited removal is already in effect at the border and has been in effect since 2004. Title 42 was in effect for more than three years, and border encounters rose nearly every month when it started, and reached their highest level ever when Title 42 was in place," he said, referring to the pandemic-era protocol that allowed border officers to turn migrants away without giving them a chance to ask for asylum.