Bad Border Deal
One thing you can never trust on Capitol Hill is a promised deadline. The Senate has been working on border security provisions to combine with supplemental aid for Ukraine, Israel, and Taiwan. The House-passed Secure the Border Act (H.R. 2) should have given Senators an excellent place to start negotiations. However, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY)’s lead negotiator, Sen. James Lankford (R-OK), may have negotiated away too much to the Democrats already.
Passing a conservative immigration reform bill is nearly an impossible task with a slim majority of Republicans in the House, a Democrat majority in the Senate, and a Democrat in the White House. But Republican chances of re-election may depend on it. Recently, a Harvard poll was conducted asking respondents their top policy concerns. Previously, inflation was the number one issue, but this month, immigration jumped to the top. Even Democrat mayors and governors are urging the Biden administration to take action. Americans, no matter where they live, are being impacted, paying attention, and demanding real changes.
Earlier this month, the Immigration Accountability Project exposed some of the provisions that the Senate has been considering in an immigration bill. In a post on X, they laid out what the bill Sen. Lankford is negotiating would do:
- Increase green cards by 50,000 per year.
- Give work permits to the parents of H-1B holders.
- Give immediate work permits to every illegal immigrant released from custody.
- Use taxpayer funds to pay lawyers for unaccompanied children and mentally incompetent aliens.
- Have expulsion authority for a limited number of days only if encounters exceed 5,000 per day over a seven-day period.
- Restrict parole for those who enter without authorization between ports of entry.
As soon as Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) saw this, he reposted saying, “Absolutely not.” While Senator Lankford did not deny these provisions were included, he did say, “I encourage people to read the border security bill before they judge the border security bill.” The problem is there is still no border bill for anyone, including Senators to read.
Then, subsequent reports were worse. More leaked provisions included the expansion of free benefits for illegal immigrants and billions of taxpayer dollars slated to go to non-governmental organizations that profit from the border crisis by aiding illegal aliens across the border. Senate Republicans were mad.
During Tuesday’s GOP lunch, discussions became heated. Senators Mike Lee (R-UT), Ted Cruz (R-TX), and Ron Johnson (R-WI) questioned why they were left out of key talks on the border control legislation. They had major concerns that a deal containing immigration reforms and aid to Ukraine, Israel, and Taiwan would be rushed through right before the President’s Day recess in mid-February. If the Senate were to do so, this would unnecessarily jam House Republican’s efforts to enact strong immigration provisions.
After leaving the meeting, Sen. Lee announced that he and nine Republican Senators were introducing a resolution to oppose cloture on any spending bill containing border security measures without adequate time for review or a robust amendment process. On Wednesday, some of his colleagues invoked their right to take seven days to review the language of this resolution. In other words, they want a full week to review a one-sentence resolution but are unwilling to commit to at least a week to review hundreds of pages of immigration language.
According to Punchbowl News, Senate Republican Leader McConnell (R-KY) may have realized that the Left is not interested in real reforms meant to limit illegal immigration. On Wednesday, he acknowledged that the time and political will to pass a bipartisan bill may have run out already. “Politics on this have changed,” McConnell said.
At this point, it seems like a border deal has hit a wall. There is still no text and no consensus among Senate members. Passing a bill that does not reform the parole or asylum systems, close the loopholes in visa programs, or stop catch-and-release of illegal immigrants and unaccompanied minors only exacerbates the problem.
The talking point from the Democrat-controlled media is that “the GOP prefers to use the border crisis as a political talking point instead of solving the underlying problem.” We know this is not true. House Republicans have a plan to stop the invasion at our border. The Biden Administration is only interested in processing more illegals every day, despite the fact that “an increasing number of migrants arrested at the southern border over the past year are on the United States’ terrorist watch list, according to government data,” as even the New York Times was forced to admit.
Eagle Forum stands with Sen. Lee and others who are demanding a transparent process and urging policies that truly secure our border. Immigration expert Rosemary Jenks, who spoke at Eagle Council 51, has founded the above-mentioned Immigration Accountability Project. They are asking all Members of Congress to sign a pledge that reads, “I will not vote to fund the government until our border is secure. Funding the federal government’s operations — or any supplemental funding bill — is contingent upon the President signing legislation that will secure the border of the United States by, among other things, requiring all illegal aliens be fully detained for the duration of the adjudication of any claim, placed into expedited removal, or returned to Mexico.”
Encourage your Representatives and Senators to sign the pledge and stop the invasion at our southern border. You can watch Rosemary Jenks’ speech at Eagle Council 51 here.
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