It happened almost exactly as predicted. Behind closed doors, a group of Republicans led by Mitch McConnell and James Lankford worked on a supposed “border security” bill with Chuck Schumer and Joe Biden. They sat on it for weeks on end, not allowing the members to read it, no doubt aware of the outrage it would cause in conservative circles. Then they dumped it out late on a Sunday night, calling for a procedural vote on it only three days later. The bill wasn’t as bad as we expected. It was worse. This isn’t a border security bill. It’s a border amnesty bill. The only arguments seemed to be over how many thousands of illegal migrants we would be letting into the country on a daily basis. And, of course, it includes another huge tranche of money for Ukraine with no provisions for all of the cash to be audited. Yes, there is also money for Israel, but the House already passed a standalone bill that would address that issue. Thankfully, it doesn’t appear that this bill will ever make it to the President’s desk. (National Review)
A key faction of Republican and Democratic senators have agreed on a $118.3 billion deal to implement stricter border and immigration policies. A security omnibus that includes aid for Ukraine and Israel, the bill is set for an uncertain floor vote in the coming days.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D., N.Y.) has pledged to hold a procedural vote on Wednesday, although doubts remain about the legislation’s securing the necessary 60 votes. According to lead GOP negotiator Senator James Lankford (R., Okla.), 20 to 25 Republican senators are prepared to assess the specifics. Additionally, a handful of Democrats are expected to vote against it.
President Joe Biden expressed support for the agreement in a Sunday-night statement, emphasizing the urgency of securing the border: “If you believe, as I do, that we must secure the border now, doing nothing is not an option.”
Lankford went out on social media touting the bill as a “once-in-a-generation opportunity.” I responded with the same impulse I’ve been hearing from most of the America-first conservatives online.
It’s really a shame we can’t primary you for two more years https://t.co/lRjhSArR9i
— Jazz Shaw (@JazzShaw) February 5, 2024
This morning you could get a good sense of just how bad this bill is by the way CNN was touting it as a “historic, bipartisan border security and foreign aid bill.” It would allow literally thousands more illegal migrants, most of whom have no standing to make an asylum claim to flood into the country every day before the President would supposedly “seal” the border. It applies no brakes to Biden’s blanket use of pardons allowing them to be released into the country freely for years. (Those pardons were supposed to be reserved for individual, special needs cases.) What this bill would do is codify Joe Biden’s open border policies with a shiny GOP stamp of approval.
As I mentioned above, however, the bill shouldn’t be going anywhere. There are already quite a few Republican senators opposing it and some Democrats are expected to vote against it as well. Getting to 60 votes to move it forward may prove impossible. Even if they somehow do, the new Speaker of the House has already declared the bill dead on arrival if it reaches his doorstep.
Why on earth would any Republican in the Senate go along with this malarkey? Are they just trying to get Biden reelected? Or have they secretly been fans of open borders and unlimited illegal migration all along? There are already two bills in process that would address most of these issues sensibly. The Senate needs to pass HR2 and the new Israel funding bill and then dare Joe Biden to veto them. Expose him for what he is. Even if this garbage bill somehow passed, Biden and Mayorkas would never honor even these watered-down provisions. As many of us have said here repeatedly, Joe Biden could close the border today without Congress having to lift a finger. But he won’t do that because he doesn’t want a secure border. He wants the opposite. And that’s not going to change even if you push this disastrous bill through to his desk.