CV NEWS FEED // Senate Democrats this week plan to bring to a vote a “border deal” that conservatives have widely panned.
The controversial bill previously failed to pass the Senate in February after a coalition of conservatives slammed it for not adequately addressing the country’s ongoing border crisis.
Sen. James Lankford, R-OK, served as the lead Republican negotiator on the legislation – which Democrats have since touted as a “bipartisan border deal.”
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-NY, announced in a letter to fellow senators on Sunday that he will spearhead an attempt to reintroduce the legislation.
“On cue, many of our Republican colleagues abruptly reversed course on their prior support, announcing their new-found opposition to the bipartisan proposal,” wrote Schumer. “By contrast, Democrats’ commitment to act never waned. That is why the Senate is prepared to take up the bipartisan Border Act as a standalone measure this coming week.”
Per FOX News Senior Congressional Correspondent Chad Pergram, Schumer “will file cloture on the motion to proceed to break filibuster” on the border bill Tuesday.
“That will ripen on Thursday,” Pergram wrote on X (formerly Twitter). He noted that 60 senators would have to vote in favor of the bill for it to advance. Pergram predicted that threshold “will not” be met.
The Senate Democratic Caucus currently controls 51 seats – meaning that nine Republicans would have to join them to break a filibuster on the legislation.
In addition, Republican House leadership have again affirmed that the bill would be “dead on arrival” in the nearly impossible event it reaches the lower chamber.
House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-LA, House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-LA, House Majority Whip Tom Emmer, R-MN, and House Republican Conference Chairwoman Elise Stefanik wrote on X Monday:
Since the beginning of this Congress, the House has passed multiple pieces of bipartisan legislation to secure the border and deport criminal illegal immigrants, including the Laken Riley Act. All of them have been blocked by Schumer and Senate Democrats.
The Secure the Border Act (H.R.2), which would end the border catastrophe by resuming construction of the border wall, ending the exploitation of parole, reinstating Remain in Mexico, and ending catch-and-release, has also been collecting dust on Schumer’s desk for over a year.
“If Senate Democrats were actually serious about solving the problem and ending the border catastrophe, they would bring up H.R. 2 and pass it this week,” the House Republican leaders added,
In mid-February, the Heritage Foundation released a report cautioning against the so-called “bipartisan border deal” that Schumer, Biden, and other Democratic leaders are seeking to advance.
“The reported deal does not stop the border crisis that Biden has created, and which he could end tomorrow with a stroke of his pen,” wrote Heritage Foundation President Kevin Roberts, Ph.D., former acting U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Commissioner Mark Morgan, and former acting U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Director Tom Homan.
“In fact, this deal would make matters worse—all while giving Biden and sanctuary jurisdictions political and financial gifts,” Roberts, Morgan, and Homan wrote.
>> MARK MORGAN: ‘WHAT IS CHRISTIAN’ ABOUT BIDEN’S BORDER POLICIES? <<
Roberts, Morgan, and Homan explained that the “border deal” would
permit up to 150,000 illegal crossings per month (5,000 every day, 1.8 million per year) before a new “shutdown” authority could be invoked. For now, the authority to invoke this will be vested in a president who openly defies current law when it comes to immigration.
…
Even if a so-called “shutdown” were to happen, based entirely on numbers the administration would be trusted to provide, the offer of accelerated work permits would only incentivize more asylum fraud at authorized ports of entry. And Biden’s unlawful mass parole programs would continue unabated at American airports.
The authors of the Heritage Report indicated that “[t]he deal also contains deceptive provisions that appear to toughen enforcement, but would actually have the opposite effect.”
“For example, the deal claims to make detention mandatory for single adult males, even though current law already provides for the mandatory detention of all individuals who enter illegally, which the Biden administration of course refuses to execute,” they explained.
Morgan and Homan both served in the Trump administration’s Department of Homeland Security (DHS). During their tenure, the rate of illegal border crossings was significantly lower than it is today.
Also in February, CatholicVote reported that “[t]he $118-billion deal was reached after negotiations between [Lankford], [Sen.] Chris Murphy, D-CT, and [Sen.] Kyrsten Sinema, I-AZ.”
>> CONSERVATIVE LAWMAKERS BLAST ‘ATROCIOUS’ BORDER BILL <<
Lankford himself has blasted the Democrats’ attempt to use the deal he negotiated “as a partisan political exercise.”
On the Senate floor last Thursday, the Republican stated: “[I]f we’re going to solve the border issues, it’s not going to by doing competing messaging bills.”
“If we’re going to solve this, let’s sit down like adults and let’s figure out how we’re going to actually resolve this together,” he added.
The Republican senator went on to concede that the border bill he helped create will likely never become law.
“The bill that I worked with Senator Murphy and Senator Sinema on, we’re not [going] to be able to pass,” he said. “So let’s find the sections of it that we can pass. The worst-case scenario is doing nothing. That’s what we’re currently doing.”
