OPINION:
Americans deserve a solution to the Biden administration’s border crisis. But the recently unveiled Senate border security package isn’t the answer. Before I explain why the Senate bill fails the America First test, it’s important to note that the administration continues to falsely claim that only Congress can solve this crisis.
Congress didn’t create this crisis in 2021; Biden administration policies did. And it’s the Biden administration that could solve this humanitarian and security crisis if it had the will to do so. Instead, the administration has failed to enforce border and immigration laws year after year. It has refused to bring this crisis to a close. So, Americans are rightfully skeptical that after three long years, the Biden team is now suddenly and willingly going to change course and enforce new laws passed by Congress.
Unlike the House-passed border security bill that Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer refuses to bring up for a vote, the Senate bill fails to end asylum fraud, secure the border, eliminate “catch and release,” or provide enough new enforcement tools for a future administration.
First, the bill creates unnecessarily complex new procedures for dealing with illegal aliens apprehended at the southern border. Instead of closing known loopholes in the law, the bill creates a confusing labyrinth of new processes that are untested and unproven. The bill appears to add layers of appeal to give illegal aliens more opportunities to contest their removal. Instead of streamlining the removal procedure, the bill expands the bureaucracy and will inevitability slow down an already overwhelmed system.
Accordingly, the claim that the bill solves the asylum issue is misleading. Close to 90% of asylum claims made by illegal aliens at the border fail. Raising the asylum standard is a good first step but is ultimately irrelevant, because the endgame for these economic migrants is to be released into American communities.
Injecting a complicated new adjudication process will not prevent fraudulent claims from being made if illegal aliens have the opportunity to disappear in the U.S. — which they will, because there will be only 50,000 detention beds for single adults, and every other illegal alien will be released on “alternatives to detention.” In my experience, this practice is ineffective and costly and results in fewer illegal aliens being removed once their claims are denied. This is the wrong approach.
Second, the bill does not close the border. Instead, it normalizes having 5,000 aliens per day, or 1.8 million per year, cross the southern border illegally before the so-called border expulsion authority is triggered. This level of unlawful border crossings is unprecedented. This level of illegal immigration will cripple the system. Or at least that was the prevailing view of the Obama administration, which considered 1,000 unlawful border crossings a day a crisis.
This authority will likely be tied up in the courts for months, if not years, before it is fully litigated. Perhaps most troubling is that this authority sunsets after three years while the rest of the bill is permanent, and border expulsions apply for fewer and fewer days each of those years. This makes little sense operationally.
Third, the bill hampers immigration enforcement. It strips immigration judges of their authority to rule on the asylum claims of illegal aliens apprehended at the border and gives it to asylum officers at U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. In doing so, it prohibits Immigration and Customs Enforcement attorneys from challenging the illegal aliens’ claims, which makes it more likely that asylum fraud will go undetected, even under the higher standard.
Other provisions that are problematic include immediately granting work permits to asylum-seekers, distributing billions of taxpayer dollars to the nonprofit groups that constantly sue the government to benefit illegal aliens, and providing taxpayer-funded attorneys for most illegal alien minors. The bill also fails to prevent the Biden administration from exploiting the immigration parole authority it has used to allow millions of inadmissible aliens into the country.
The few positive provisions of the bill are nullified by pairing them with numerous flawed provisions. The bill may have been negotiated across the political aisle, but the final product will be unworkable and ineffective. A better approach would have been to bolster and streamline proven policies, such as the Migrant Protection Protocols, implemented by the Trump administration. This policy reduced illegal immigration, granted humanitarian relief faster to those who qualified, and ensured that those who did not were returned to their home country.
Meaningful changes in border security law would be a step in the right direction. Unfortunately, this bill falls short.
• Chad Wolf is the former acting secretary of homeland security and executive director and chair of the Center for Homeland Security & Immigration at the America First Policy Institute.
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