Christian Smith
The Biden administration is urging Senate Republicans to support reviving the failed bipartisan border agreement they abandoned after former President Trump spoke out against it.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (DN.Y.) is planning a second vote on the bill on Thursday, although Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) on Monday told President Biden which Republicans plan to vote against.
White House officials on Wednesday sought to place the onus of inaction at the border on the Republican Party.
“Senate Republicans will have another opportunity to decide whether they want to support the toughest and fairest border security agreement in decades or whether they will continue to put their partisan political interests ahead of the nation and security,” a senior administration official told reporters by phone. .
The blame game highlights the downward spiral the deal has traveled, from a much-lauded — and much-feared — piece of actionable legislation earlier this year to a twice-doomed messaging bill with no chance of becoming law.
In the February vote, only four Republicans I voted in favor of the agreement, despite its aggressive content, giving McConnell a black eye. Later that month, he announced that he would step down from his leadership role in November.
On the Democratic side, the deal raised the ire of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus (CHC), a major immigration player that was conspicuously kept out of the negotiating room, although it drew some cautious support from progressives eager to see progress on the issue.
One of the progressives who voted for the deal in February, Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.), announced Tuesday that he would not vote for it again, saying he supported it “to emphasize my commitment to continued debate on the solution of the problem”. challenges at the border, despite my serious concerns about some of the substance of the underlying legislation.”
“I was shocked to see Senate Republicans reject a bipartisan bill they negotiated and agreed to due to pressure from Donald Trump. This is the height of hypocrisy and shows that Senate Republicans are not committed to meaningfully resolving the problems at our border,” Booker said in a statement.
But Schumer is expected to move forward with the vote, allowing vulnerable Democrats including Sens. Jon Tester (Mont.), Tammy Baldwin (Wis.), Jacky Rosen (Nev.) and Bob Casey (Penn.) to announce their support for a tough border bill while advocating Republican obstructionism.
Republicans called the new vote a political stunt, reinforcing their message that Biden’s policies are solely responsible for conditions at the border. Even Sen. James Lankford (Okla.), the bill’s chief Republican architect, criticized Schumer’s revote as a political effort to protect vulnerable Democrats
The legislation itself remains unchanged from its previous iteration, which was criticized by immigrant rights activists, in particular for a provision that “closes” the border after a series of recorded crossings over a set period of time.
The government does not have the capacity to actually close the border; Supporters of the measure have used the term as a proxy for the authority to stop processing asylum claims and conduct summary expulsions of migrants to Mexico.
That authority reflects the central concept behind the Trump administration’s border strategy, with summary expulsions at the heart of policies like Title 42 and the Migrant Protection Protocols, better known as “remain in Mexico.”
Biden administration officials on Wednesday pointed out two key differences between the Trump administration’s implementation of expulsions and those proposed under the now-defunct agreement: a three-year legal sunset clause for the authority and an exception for “individuals who present themselves in a safe manner.” and ordered at a port of entry” with prior scheduling through the CBP One app.
Regardless, supporters say the bill will lead to worsening humanitarian conditions at the border, and any move to enforce the bill’s proposals through executive action could backfire politically.
“Nothing in this bill will change the dynamics at the border, or the politics of the situation. However, these measures will undoubtedly place asylum seekers in even more treacherous danger, and some will certainly die as a result,” said Thomas Cartwright, an advocate at Witness at the Border.
“We urge President Biden to resist the temptation to secure a deal for the sake of getting a deal, especially one that is ineffective, dangerous and contrary to our nation’s values. And furthermore, if rejected by vote, we would consider it abhorrent, and a betrayal of his campaign promises to implement an executive order invoking the worst parts of the Senate bill.”
