The mainstream media's coverage of the proposed border legislation is severely lacking, with many news websites neglecting to provide a link to the actual legislation. In contrast, I delve into a comprehensive analysis of the legislation, exploring its contents in detail.
If you would like to read the legislation for yourself click here.
The long-anticipated $118 billion supplemental spending deal, encompassing funding for Ukraine, and Israel, and measures addressing the southern border crisis, has been unveiled by Senate lawmakers.
The bipartisan agreement, supported by Senate leaders and the Biden administration, allocates $60 billion for Ukraine, $14 billion for Israel, and approximately $20 billion to address the record-breaking 2.4 million encounters at the southern border in FY 23.
Despite backing, the bill faces opposition from Republicans and some liberal Democrats.
Key provisions include a 'Border Emergency Authority' allowing the shutdown of entries at the southern border, expedited work permits for released migrants, changes to asylum rules, increased border funding and staffing, and pathways for legal immigration, including work permits for documented dreamers.
“I firmly believe this compromise supports Arizonans and protects both our national security interests and those of our Israeli allies and Taiwanese and Ukrainian partners,” said Gallego, who is running to replace Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (I-Ariz.), a lead negotiator on the deal who has not yet said if she is running for reelection.
The bill also includes a provision that allows officials to shut down entries into the United States at the southern border, but only when there is a rolling seven-day average of 5,000 encounters a day or 8,500 encounters in a single day. At that point, DHS is mandated to expel all migrants without processing them, except for unaccompanied children. That authority can only end when encounters drop at least 25% for seven days, and DHS has 14 days to end the authority.
However, the president can suspend the authority for up to 45 days, and by the third calendar year, the DHS secretary is limited to using it for half the calendar year. DHS can also implement the authority at its discretion when the average number of encounters exceeds 4,000 a day.
The bill also expedites two-year work permits for migrants who are released into the interior; provides government-funded legal counsel for migrants and children; tightens language for screening of migrants who claim asylum; work permits and temporary visas for 250,000 children of immigrants on temporary work visas who have since become adults; raises the cap on the number of green cards by 50,000 a year and more.
The bill also establishes an expedited pathway for Afghans who were evacuated to the U.S. to get green cards.
"I've seen enough," House Speaker Johnson wrote on X. "This bill is even worse than we expected, and won't come close to ending the border catastrophe the President has created. As the lead Democrat negotiator proclaimed: Under this legislation, 'the border never closes.’"
The plan would set into law many of the open border pro-migration policies Biden has instituted that have led to a wave of migration that has overwhelmed law enforcement at the southern border.
House Speaker Mike Johnson, Majority Leader Steve Scalise, New York Rep. Elise Stefanik and Rep. Tom Emmer of Minnesota said they oppose the legislation because “it fails in every policy area needed to secure our border and would actually incentivize more illegal immigration.”
Donald Trump is demanding that Republicans sink the agreement, which they struck with Democrats and is now backed by President Joe Biden, as Trump, the likely 2024 Republican presidential nominee, seeks to wield immigration as a political weapon in the fall election. Trump tore into the bill on social media, calling it “nothing more than a highly sophisticated trap for Republicans to assume the blame on what the Radical Left Democrats have done to our Border, just in time for our most important EVER Election.”
Senate Minority Whip John Thune, R-S.D., told reporters that Republicans worry there “hasn’t been adequate time” to process the bill yet. “I think it’s fair to say everybody thinks that voting Wednesday is voting too soon,” he said.
