The Senate finally released its so-called border security bill on Sunday night.
The “compromise” bill between Democratic and Republican leadership would do little to stop the massive flow of illegal immigration across our border, and to top it off, it has been paired with $60 billion in funding for the war in Ukraine.
It appears to be “dead on arrival” in the Republican-controlled House of Representatives, and that’s almost certainly a good thing.
The most effective measures for curbing illegal immigration, such as the “remain in Mexico” policy used under then-President Donald Trump, are entirely missing from the bill. Instead, it relies on a few half-measures that are unlikely to change the fundamentally toxic dynamic at the border.
Even what seems to be the best part of the bill for those who want to secure the border is toothless. One of the provisions of the bill requires the border to be entirely shut down after 5,000 border crossings in seven consecutive days or 8,500 in one day. This policy would stay in place for three years.
That sounds promising until you read the fine print, helpfully provided by Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., who bragged on X, formerly Twitter, about writing some of the immigration portions of the bill.
The provision would still allow for 1,400 asylum-seekers to cross the border at official entry points every day. That alone adds up to more than half a million people in a year, an enormous number.
The bill prevents the federal government from using that limitation more than 270, 225, and 180 days in years one, two, and three, respectively. If the crisis continues to escalate, that limitation will have less and less effect.
I’d recommend reading Murphy’s entire thread. It seems quite clear that this legislation has little to do with securing the border and more to do with ensuring that the pipeline of people coming across the border continues indefinitely and with fewer obstacles. Just what the American people wanted.
Is Murphy trying to embarrass the Republicans he’s been working with? Because that’s almost what this looks like.
Proponents of the legislation say that it includes provisions to limit the Department of Homeland Security’s parole authority. Mass parole by the Biden administration has certainly been one of the biggest drivers of this crisis.
The problem is that the bill actually codifies and expands the Department of Homeland Security’s parole abuse. It gives Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas—a man already facing impeachment over his role in the border crisis—wide latitude in using “humanitarian” and cultural justifications in case-by-case parole decisions.
It’s almost laughable to think that Mayorkas won’t continue to use those workarounds to continue the current sieve of a system.
Besides the feeble limitations on the flow of illegal immigration, the bill also heaps a huge amount of money on the agencies and organizations that have fueled the border crisis.
It provides a massive payday for nongovernmental organizations facilitating illegal immigration. In one section, it stipulates that $2.3 billion would be sent to “qualified organizations, including nonprofit entities” for what it calls “refugee and entrant assistance activities.”
It also has a section that would additionally provide the Federal Emergency Management Agency with up to $1.4 billion to distribute to NGOs if certain security hiring and deportation numbers are hit.
Do higher deportation numbers necessarily mean that the government is trying to deter illegal immigration? Not really. That could just mean that the flow of illegal immigrants has increased.
When the administration puts up a metaphorical “Come In, We’re Open,” sign at the border, as one Florida judge characterized it last year, don’t expect the number of people trying to get into the country to abate.
In total, this bill would provide $7 billion through federal grants provided by the departments of Homeland Security, State, Justice and Health and Human Services to sanctuary jurisdictions and NGOs facilitating illegal immigration.
Those NGOs shouldn’t be getting more funding. They should be investigated and shut down.
The bottom line is that the bill’s limitations on illegal immigration are shallow, but the facilitators are wide and deep. Opposition seems to be mounting quickly.
House Speaker Mike Johnson said the legislation is “dead on arrival.”
Other House Republicans and a few dissenting Senate Republicans have weighed in fervently against it, too.
Heritage Foundation President Kevin Roberts wrote that the bill “misses every single mark.”
Hopefully, that will put an end to it, because if this immigration bill ever passed, it would represent a surrender to the permanent crisis created by the Biden administration.
The path we are on is a complete invalidation of the notion that we are a sovereign, self-governing country. We are losing any notion of meaningful citizenship contingent on a pairing of secured rights and responsibilities.
This is how we are actually losing our democracy.
The border chaos really comes down to one simple factor.
From the day Biden entered office on Jan. 20, 2021, he signaled that anyone requesting asylum would be let into the country and that he is simply unwilling to send people away. Biden’s border disaster isn’t incompetence or due to a lack of resources. It’s intentional.
That the Senate legislation is being touted in some circles as the “toughest” immigration bill ever only goes to show the unseriousness of this country’s political class about securing our border and putting an end to this manufactured crisis.
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