Senate border deal would allow 5,000 illegal immigrants a day

Conservative activists are recoiling as details leak from the immigration deal being negotiated in the Senate suggesting illegal border crossers will be immediately eligible for work permits and the government will allow up to 5,000 illegal immigrants a day before expulsion powers take effect.

Negotiators have tightly guarded plans during their weeks of talks, but Rosemary Jenks, government relations director at the Immigration Accountability Project, said she has been briefed by multiple people familiar with the negotiations and has been sharing details online.

She said the current framework includes a right to government-funded attorneys for illegal immigrant children struggling through the immigration courts and an expansion of legal immigration, which are priorities of President Biden. In exchange, Republicans would win new limits on attempts to claim asylum and expanded speedy deportation powers but no significant new restrictions on The Homeland Security Department’s power to “parole” illegal immigrants directly into the U.S.

Ms. Jenks said the deal, based on those outlines, would do little to derail the unprecedented number of illegal immigrants pouring across the border.

“I think we’d be lucky if it didn’t increase,” she told The Washington Times. “There’s nothing in this that I have seen or been told about that stops catch-and-release.”

Her version of the bill has scorched through conservative circles, and activists are rallying to demand that the Republicans back out of the talks. Their chief target is Sen. James Lankford, the Oklahoma lawmaker serving as Republicans’ lead negotiator.

In a statement to The Times, the senator pleaded for patience. He said those attacking the deal haven’t seen the outlines.

“There are generational changes in border security laws that are included in the text being drafted. I would encourage everyone to read the bill when it comes out before they determine their opinion on something they have not even seen,” he said.

He detailed the hurdles he faces in the talks.

“Stopping the massive flow of illegal immigration and creating new effective authorities for our law enforcement at the border are the priorities we are fighting the Biden White House and a Democratic-led Senate to change, which have both refused to even acknowledge the crisis on our southwest border,” he said.

Border security has become the linchpin of the $110 billion national security spending bill that funds Ukraine’s war with Russia and Israel’s war against Hamas. Republicans have said they cannot pay to enforce Ukraine’s border unless they can assure voters they have secured the U.S. border.

The White House has acknowledged the border chaos but has resisted significant changes to its approach. Officials insist immigration is a global problem and the only answer is an overhaul of the U.S. system.

The White House has argued that illegal immigrants have overwhelmed American communities because they aren’t able to legally work immediately. Those who apply for asylum can obtain work permits in 180 days.

Ms. Jenks said the plan would front-load the permits when migrants are caught and released.

She blasted the 5,000-person trigger for expulsion powers. She pointed to Obama-era Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson’s statement that 1,000 illegal immigrants a day overwhelmed the system.

Ms. Jenks appeared on Steve Bannon’s “War Room” show on Thursday to talk about the emerging deal. Mr. Bannon, a former top adviser to President Trump, urged his audience to call Mr. Lankford and demand that he scuttle the bill.

“This is an outrage. It’s a sellout of the American people,” he said. “They’re doing it behind closed doors. They’re going to try to jam it next week.”

Ms. Jenks’ revelations have irked Republican leaders in the Senate, but they are enraging Republicans in the House.

Rep. Chip Roy, Texas Republican, replied to a social media post from the Immigration Accountability Project detailing the provisions by calling the deal “a JOKE of an offer.”

“Bottom line: WEAK security provisions in exchange for an open-borders wish list,” he said.

Rep. Bob Good, Virginia Republican and chairman of the House Freedom Caucus, replied: “No.”

Sen. Rand Paul, Kentucky Republican, derided the 5,000-person threshold in an appearance on Fox News last week.

“It’s a sellout,” he said. “It’s saying, ‘Oh, well, let 5,000 come illegally a day and then after that we might try to stop the next 5,000 that day.’ It’s completely a sellout.”

The biggest sticking point in negotiations had been Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas’ expansive use of “parole” to catch and release more than 1.5 million unauthorized migrants. Ms. Jenks said the deal would block the use of parole for migrants caught sneaking into the U.S. by the Border Patrol but would allow it for migrants who show up at airports and land border crossings.

That is the same as the current situation, she said.

Mr. Lankford briefed fellow senators on his progress Wednesday.

Senators afterward confirmed to The Times that the deal is homing in on the 5,000 threshold for illegal immigrants allowed each day. Republican senators told The Times that immediately issuing work permits to the catch-and-release population would be a nonstarter.

Mr. Lankford also briefed members of the House Republican Study Committee, a group of conservatives. A spokeswoman for Chairman Kevin Hern, Oklahoma Republican, didn’t respond to an inquiry for this report.

The Times also reached out to Homeland Security and the White House.

Whatever deal Mr. Lankford signs would have to make it through the Democratic-led Senate and the Republican-controlled House.

The hurdle in the House could prove troubling if the deal looks similar to what has been leaked.

“That border fight is coming, and we’re going to die on that hill,” Speaker Mike Johnson, Louisiana Republican, said recently on Hugh Hewitt’s radio show.

He said he was “cautiously optimistic” about what he heard about the negotiations but had yet to see any text. He said the House position remains the stiff enforcement bill passed last year, which would restore the Trump-era “Remain in Mexico” program, reel in the expansive use of parole and build more border wall.

Mr. Hewitt told Mr. Johnson that he wouldn’t lend his voice to support the deal without the wall, and he predicted that “the base will desert you, and we will lose the majorities.”