Key Senate Republicans on Monday announced a road map for stiffening border security by restarting construction on the border wall, limiting the expansive asylum claims illegal immigrants use to get caught and released, and shutting down the “family loophole” that rewards migrants who bring children on the dangerous journey.
The legislation was written by Sen. Lindsey Graham, the top Republican on the Judiciary Committee, as well as Sens. Tom Cotton and James Lankford.
It comes as Republicans search for a package of proposals they can attach to President Biden’s request for billions of dollars in new immigration spending. The president’s request would speed up processing, but Republicans said major policy changes are needed if the government wants to stem the flow of people.
“President Biden’s border policies are not working and it’s time to change course,” said Mr. Graham, South Carolina Republican. “Our proposal makes the necessary changes that our country needs at this critical time.”
The chief component of the border chaos that’s erupted under Mr. Biden is the number of illegal immigrants who are being caught and then released into the country. Analysts say that each of those serves as an invitation for more people to make the journey.
Many are lodging bogus asylum claims to get released. Others are being waved in through Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas’ expansive “parole” policies.
The GOP bill would increase the standard for initial asylum claims at the border, which the senators said would weed out weak claims at the start. And migrants who left their homes and traipsed through other countries to reach the U.S. would be presumed not to be authentic asylum-seekers, since they could have stopped in any of those intermediate locations if their goal was just to escape persecution at home.
The Republicans’ legislation would also require asylum claims at the border to be made at official border crossings, which the senators said would take pressure off Border Patrol agents who patrol between the crossings and who are missing tens of thousands of migrants each month because they are so overwhelmed with the asylum cases.
Other key elements include pushing for more DNA testing of migrants and ordering Mr. Mayorkas to restart wall construction.
Mr. Mayorkas would also be restricted in his use of parole, which would be returned to a case-by-case safety valve for exceptional instances. The bill would ban the broad new categorical programs that Mr. Mayorkas has created, which have approved roughly 95% of applicants, creating a pathway for hundreds of thousands of people to enter despite lacking any legal visa to do so.
“We have needed significant updates in border security law for years,” said Mr. Lankford, Oklahoma Republican.
Democrats said the plan was too harsh to illegal immigrants.
“Today’s proposal from my Republican colleagues is not a good starting point – it is not consistent with American values and it would not secure our border,” said Sen. Richard J. Durbin, Illinois Democrat and chairman of the Judiciary Committee.
He said he’s ready to “move past the partisan bickering on this issue.”
• Stephen Dinan can be reached at sdinan@washingtontimes.com.
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