The bipartisan group of Senators that have negotiated since late last year released the text of their legislation that would restrict immigration in exchange for aid to Ukraine and Israel.
The group—comprised of Republican Senator James Lankford of Oklahoma, Independent Senator Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona and Democratic Senator Chris Murphy of Connecticut—released the text of the legislation on Sunday night after months of back-and-forth. The bill’s total price tag is approximately $118bn.
President Joe Biden praised the bill on Sunday evening, calling it the “toughest and fairest” border reform legislation in “decades.”
“Now, House Republicans have to decide,” Mr Biden added. “Do they want to solve the problem? Or do they want to keep playing politics with the border? I’ve made my decision. I’m ready to solve the problem.”
Mr Murphy said the bill fixes “our broken asylum system” but “doesn’t deviate from our nation’s core values.”
“We are a nation that rescues people from terror and violence,” Mr Murphy said on X. “We are a nation that is stronger because of our tradition of immigration. Period. Stop.”
The senators introduced several provisions that further restrict immigration to the US.
The bipartisan bill would require the Department of Homeland Security to shut down the US-Mexico border when they record an average of 5,000 migrants crossing per day over seven days. The legislation also provides $650m to build and reinforce several miles of the border wall, Mr Lankford said in a statement.
Furthermore, it would also further restrict the practice of “catch and release,” in which border officials release migrants into the US as they await their court dates.
“What we are doing is detaining folks upon their entrance to the country and then using a higher initial standard so that we can better determine who was an economic migrant and who may have a valid claim at asylum,” Ms Sinema told reporters Sunday night.
“If they can prove that they’re fleeing violence and persecution, they will be released into the country with a work permit, and they will also be under supervision for an additional 90 days until their final asylum determination occurs,” she continued.
The bill also includes funding for the Department of Homeland Security to hire more personnel, which Ms Sinema said will “reduce the immigration asylum backlog” and help officials adjudicate asylum claims faster.
These stricter immigration policies come in exchange for aid to Ukraine and Israel, which both Mr Biden and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer praised in Sunday evening statements.
“[The bill] provides billions in vital investments in America’s national security to address growing threats in the Middle East and Red Sea, equips Ukraine to fight off Putin, helps Israel defend itself against forces that wish to wipe a Jewish state off the map while also providing humanitarian assistance to innocent Palestinian civilians in Gaza, answers the call for humanitarian assistance around the world, and bolsters Taiwan and other allies in the Indo-Pacific region against China,” Mr Schumer said.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Republican, praised Mr Lankford’s work on the bill while attacking the Biden administration.
“President Biden’s campaign promise to welcome illegal aliens at the border overwhelmed a broken asylum system that unified Republican government had tried desperately to fix in the face of Democrat obstruction,” Mr McConnell said in a statement.
Marsha Blackburn, a Tennessee Republican senator and ally to Mr McConnell, came out in stark opposition to the bill.
“I will never vote to make illegal immigration legal, and I will not support this deal,” she wrote on X.
While representatives and senators on both sides of the aisle are throwing their support behind the bill, several hardline conservatives voiced their opposition as soon as the bipartisan group released the text.
Congressman Eli Crane of Arizona, who has criticised the negotiations in the past, vocally opposed the bill.
“As expected, the Senate’s border bill is another spineless sellout by the establishment that does nothing to protect Americans and instead, legitimizes an invasion,” he said in a statement on X.
Many Republicans in the Senate opposed the agreement before the text was even available. In addition, House Speaker Mike Johnson has previously said the agreement is “dead on arrival” in the House of Representatives. Conservatives in the House have said the legislation is insufficient and they have pushed their own legislation, known as the Secure the Border Act.
Representative Tom Tiffany of Wisconsin condemned the bill on Sunday evening.
“Any border ‘shutdown’ that ALLOWS thousands of illegal crossings a day is a failure,” Mr Tiffany said on X. “And the Biden-Senate Amnesty Sellout ALLOWS up to 8,500 in a day before one.”
In addition, former president and presumptive presidential nominee Donald Trump has come out against the agreement.
Mr Trump for his part has shown that he is willing to accept blame for the legislation’s demise. Last month, in the middle of the negotiations, Mr Trump posted on Truth Social that Republicans should oppose any agreement “unless we get EVERYTHING needed” to secure the US-Mexico border.
Mr McConnell raised alarms for many Republicans who supported the agreement when during a Senate luncheon he seemed to indicate that Mr Trump would want to run on criticising Mr Biden on immigration.
“I listened to what he had to say. He said the campaign politics have changed and that the former president’s campaign would prefer not having a border deal,” Senator Mitt Romney of Utah, a supporter of Ukraine and additional restrictions on immigration, told The Independent at the time.
Last week, Mr Trump told supporters in Las Vegas he wanted lawmakers to ‘blame’ him if the bipartisan bill fails.
“I’ll fight it all the way,” Mr Trump. “A lot of the senators are trying to say — respectfully, they’re blaming it on me. I say, that’s OK. Please blame it on me. Please.”
Senator J.D. Vance, a staunch ally to Mr Trump, declared the bill an “atrocious proposal.”
Congressman Matt Gaetz, a Republican from Florida and a staunch ally of Mr Trump, railed against the bill on X.
“The Senate Amnesty Bill literally would force President Trump to let in illegals well into his term,” he said. “Any Republican who votes for this is no better than a Democrat!”
Ms Sinema literally laughed off accusations that the legislation could be an “amnesty,” which would mean giving a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants, when asked about it during a call with reporters.
“Let me be very clear, individuals should not be coming into our country between ports of entry,” she said. “That is an unlawful form of entry into our country.”
This bill came about as Republicans stipulated that they would not support additional aid to Ukraine in its fight against Russian President Vladimir Putin without restrictions to immigration.
Just days before Sunday night’s text came out, members of the GOP voted to advance articles of impeachment against Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas. The articles, which will likely land on the House floor in coming days, accuse Mr Mayorkas of “willful and systemic refusal to comply with the law” by allowing the release of migrants awaiting legal proceedings and breached “public trust” when he told lawmakers the US-Mexico border was secure.
The bill also includes major provisions of the Afghan Adjustment Act, a bipartisan law that failed to pass in the last Congress. Lawmakers intended to build a pathway to permanent residence for Afghans who helped US troops before Mr Biden pulled Americans out of Afghanistan in 2021.
Afghans who assisted the US in their war with Afghanistan faced threats to their lives after the US left the country following the takeover of the Taliban. Most Afghans who came to the US following the withdrawal arrived on humanitarian parole, wherein people who may be otherwise ineligible for admission into the United States are allowed to enter for humanitarian reasons.
If passed, Sunday night’s bill would allow the Secretary of Homeland Security to grant conditional lawful permanent resident status to Afghan refugees following a vetting process.
During the weekend, Mr Johnson released standalone legislation to aid Israel. But House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries criticised the bill and said it was an attempt to kill the Senate bill.
“There is reason to believe that this eleventh-hour standalone bill is a cynical attempt to undermine the Senate’s bipartisan effort, given that House Republicans have been ordered by the former president not to pass any border security legislation or assistance for Ukraine,” Mr Jeffries wrote in a “Dear Colleague” letter to Democratic members.
“Clearly, the most responsible legislative approach with respect to our national security needs is a comprehensive one,” Mr Jeffries added.
This is a developing story…