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Senators revealed a new border security deal Sunday that backers said would end the cycle of catch-and-release of illegal immigrants that has led to unprecedented chaos at the southern border under President Biden.
The bill would expand the government’s deportation force, try to speed up immigration court hearings, and give the president new powers to block illegal immigrants at the border, though only after the flow averages more than 4,000 migrants a day.
Many of the provisions revive the get-tough Trump policies that Mr. Biden spent years erasing, and specifically rein in tools Mr. Biden used to loosen enforcement, such as “parole.”
The bill also rejects his plans to cut the deportation force and instead envisions a massive buildup in detention beds and deportation flights.
Yet Mr. Biden, with a reelection bid looming and voters increasingly complaining about the border, quickly embraced the deal, saying he is eager to use the powers.
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“It will make our country safer, make our border more secure, treat people fairly and humanely while preserving legal immigration, consistent with our values as a nation,” he said. “It would give me, as President, a new emergency authority to shut down the border when it becomes overwhelmed. It will make our asylum process fairer and more efficient while protecting the most vulnerable. It will expedite work permits so that those who are here and qualify can get to work more quickly.”
The expansive deal would also expand legal immigration by 50,000 spaces a year, grant immediate work permits to illegal immigrants, and create a special pathway to citizenship for the tens of thousands of Afghans brought out of that country during Mr. Biden’s disastrous 2021 troop withdrawal.
House Republican leaders said the deal still allows a minimum level of illegal immigration and includes automatic work permits for those who are still caught and released. They said the bill won’t get a vote in the House.
“This bill is even worse than expected,” said House Speaker Mike Johnson, Louisiana Republican, on social media. “If this bill reaches the House, it will be dead on arrival.”
Those who negotiated the deal countered that it’s a once-in-a-generation update to the country’s border controls, giving presidents new tools to try to stem what’s become a wholesale collapse of the current system.
The border deal is part of a $118 billion national security bill, which includes money to support Ukraine’s war with Russia, funding for Israel’s fight with Hamas, and money slated to enhance U.S. and allies’ deterrence of Chinese aggression.
DOCUMENT: Border security deal summary
The border provisions are the linchpin of the bill, with Mr. Biden hoping it can sway Republicans wary of pumping tens of billions of dollars more into Ukraine.
Sen. James Lankford, the Oklahoma Republican who served as his party’s top border negotiator, said the legislation includes “a huge number of new enforcement tools.”
“Americans are not opposed to legal and orderly immigration, but they are tired of the chaos and abuse at our border,” he said.
He said the bill replaces catch-and-release with what he called detain-and-deport.
Sen. Christopher Murphy of Connecticut, the Democrats’ lead negotiator, said his party knows something must change.
“Americans know our immigration system is broken. They see how our current laws leave the border in often chaotic conditions,” he said. “Americans have been begging Republicans and Democrats to stop using the border as a political weapon.”
A Senate Democratic aide briefing reporters on the legislation said the negotiators don’t have an estimate for how much the bill would reduce illegal immigration.
“This wasn’t driven by ‘we have to reduce the flow by X percent,’” the aide said.
Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer, New York Democrat, aims to push the deal through the Senate quickly and hopes for a first test vote as early as Wednesday.
Speed is of the essence. The longer the deal sits, the more likely it is to anger both the right and left.
Mr. Johnson and House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, Louisiana Republican, both said the bill is a non-starter in their chamber, where the GOP has control.
“Let me be clear: The Senate Border Bill will NOT receive a vote in the House,” Mr. Scalise said on social media platform X.
Mr. Biden’s partisans on the left were also angry.
“This bill is a disgrace and a stain on America’s reputation as a defender of human rights,” said Murad Awawdeh, executive director of the New York Immigration Coalition. “This proposal does nothing other than exacerbate the humanitarian and operational challenges at the border, while advancing the extremist, anti-immigrant agenda of Trump’s GOP.”
Those involved in the negotiations urged critics to hold off on judgment until they digested the full deal.
They acknowledged that neither side in the immigration debate was getting all it wanted, but said it is an honest attempt to block out unworthy migrants just seeking jobs or to reconnect with families, while still allowing true asylum-seekers and others in need of protection.
The chief goal, negotiators said, is to end the catch-and-release practice that Mr. Biden has used to allow millions of unauthorized migrants to disperse into American communities, with the dim hope that they will eventually show up for court hearings and, ultimately, deportation.
Experts say catch-and-release gives migrants a chance to burrow into society, which is why people are jumping the border in the first place. Ending it, they hope, will deter future newcomers.
The deal calls for more illegal immigrants to be detained. Migrant families would still be released, but the deal calls for them to face monitoring.
Those in detention are already subject to quick hearings and can be easily deported since they are in custody the whole time. Those who are released should now get final decisions within 180 days. Because they are monitored the whole time, the hope is they will show up for their hearings and then be deported if they lose their cases.
At the border, the deal includes a new expulsion power similar to the pandemic-era Title 42 policy, which allows the U.S. to push illegal immigrants back into Mexico.
Mr. Biden could begin to use the expulsion power if unauthorized migration topped an average of 4,000 people a day, and it would become mandatory if migration averaged 5,000 people a day or if 8,500 people came in a single day.
Critics say that means the government could allow up to 150,000 illegal immigrants a month, but the deal’s backers say many fewer would be released, and when deportations tick up and would-be migrants see they might not be able to stay, the overall numbers should begin to drop.
Democrats also said the bill never fully shuts down the border. Even if the expulsion powers kick in, 1,400 migrants a day will be allowed to show up at official border crossings to demand asylum.
Rep. Mark Green, Tennessee Republican and House Homeland Security Committee chairman, derided the proposal.
“I will vehemently oppose any agreement that legitimizes or normalizes any level of illegal immigration,” he said. “We must end this historic border crisis — not by legislative ‘feel-good’ efforts, but by enforcing the law.”
Experts argued Sunday night over how much the legislation, if signed into law, would change things on the ground. So much of that answer depends on the zealousness of the administration and the officers who make asylum determinations, and the agents assigned to track illegal immigrants once released into the U.S.
It also depends on the outcome of loopholes and carve-outs written into the new get-tough provisions.
Mr. Lankford said it’s difficult to predict the future flows, but he said there’s no doubt the legislation would cut into the numbers.
He said the country has been above the 5,000 encounters per day for all but seven days over the last four months, which means one million people have crossed over that time. If the 5,000 rule had been in place, he said it would have been cut to 200,000 and they would have been subject to a higher standard of proof for earning asylum.
The deal includes a number of Biden wish-list items not directly related to border security, including a path to citizenship for Afghans, new guest-worker permits for relatives of current guest-workers, and the 50,000 new annual green cards, or permanent legal immigration passes.
The proposal also pours massive amounts of money into Customs and Border Protection, Immigration and Customs Enforcement and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Each is directed to go on a crash-course to hire new people or, in the case of ICE, to radically expand its deportation operations.
The hiring will prove to be a problem.
Despite the agency’s frantic efforts, CBP’s Border Patrol has been hundreds of agents short of full-staffing for years as attrition regularly outpaces new hiring.
USCIS was already rushing to hire thousands of asylum officers. It now has the task of bringing on more than 4,300 new ones.
The Senate is eyeing an initial vote to head off a filibuster on the deal on Wednesday.
That could create a dramatic split screen. House Republicans are moving to impeach Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas this week, with a vote Wednesday or Thursday.
The two articles of impeachment accuse him of defying current immigration enforcement laws and lying to Congress.
No sitting Cabinet member has ever been impeached, though one, in the Grant administration, was impeached just after leaving office.
Impeachment takes just a majority vote in the House. The matter then moves to the Senate, where it takes a two-thirds vote to convict and remove someone. That’s unthinkable, given Democrats’ control of the chamber.
• Stephen Dinan can be reached at sdinan@washingtontimes.com.
• Alex Miller can be reached at amiller@washingtontimes.com.
• Ramsey Touchberry can be reached at rtouchberry@washingtontimes.com.
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