Reply to “Comment on ‘The Implications of Congress on the Border Reform Bill” by Rep. J. Lankford
At least two dozen GOP senators are casting doubt on the chances of the $118 billion bill, which would result in the most significant change to U.S. immigration law in some four decades.
Sen. James Lankford, R-Okla., one of the negotiators who wrote the bill, told reporters in the capitol that he does not think a planned Wednesday vote on a motion start debate can be approved.
Lankford would not go that far. He told reporters that the bill needed to be changed in order to get more Republican support. Any move further to the right could cost Democrats enough seats to reach the 60-vote threshold.
There is approximately $20 billion for border provisions in the new national security bill, which includes $650 million for the border wall.
The proposal would also raise the threshold to meet asylum claims, mandate a 90- day initial determination of eligibility, and force Border Protection agents to turn away migrants if the total number of encounters reaches a certain threshold.
And it would deliver on the foreign humanitarian aid that Biden requested last year, kicking off the whole process. The bill would provide $14 billion to Israel, and $10 billion to civilians in Gaza, the West Bank and other populations in conflict zones.
The Senate had been urged to block the bill by Republicans before the details were made public on Sunday, in order to give Biden a victory.
“I think it’s difficult to overcome the attitude of the House and other members who have already said no, so I guess that’s the situation we’re stuck in,” said Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa. The fact that so many of our members came out as hard no before the legislation was released is a source of disappointment for me.
Murphy said they did exactly what the Republicans told them to do. “We got a bipartisan border reform bill, a historic one. Republicans are promising to oppose the bill they wanted because Donald Trump wants chaos at the border.
“After many months of negotiations that lacked transparency or the support of a single border state Democrat, the deal includes a new version of a failed Trump immigration policy that will cause more chaos at the border,” said Sen. Alex Padilla in a statement.
“Right now most Republicans are prepared to listen to Donald Trump, who says he wants chaos to continue at the border because that will help him politically,” Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., told Morning Edition’s Michel Martin.
Immigration is going to be a hot topic in the presidential election in twenty four years. Recent polls show that voters have more confidence in Donald Trump than in Biden to fix the border crisis, despite him blaming Biden’s policies for it.
He said Americans don’t like to talk about the crisis of immigration, with 10,000 migrants crossing into the country every day and many winding up in homeless shelters.
The 370 Project: A Dead on Arrival, or a “Death Wish for The GOP,” Sen. Mike Johnson and U.S. Rep. Mike Murphy
House Speaker Mike Johnson has since called it “dead on arrival,” while Trump slammed it on Truth Social as a “great gift to the Democrats, and a Death Wish for The Republican Party.”
Senate Republicans left an animated party meeting late Monday in agreement that they need more time to parse the 370 bill and discuss potential amendments. They are set to take a procedural vote on Wednesday that will either allow them to debate the legislation or not at all. It needs 60 votes to pass.
Members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus and Progressive Caucus have criticized the bill for being too tough on migrants and lacking key Democratic priorities, such as a pathway to citizenship for Dreamers.
Murphy said “Washington is somewhat unfamiliar with an old-fashioned compromise that involves some Democrats voting no and some Republicans voting no.” We’ve done that here. We are taking an issue that has long divided America and finding middle ground.”
Murphy said Republican conditions were that no of the money go to UNRWA, the main agency for UN aid in Gaza. The US and other countries stopped funding the agency after Israel accused a dozen of their employees of being involved in the attack.
“There are many other groups like the Red Crescent that are operating effectively inside Gaza,” Murphy said. We will get money to people who need it.
$60 billion in military aid for Ukraine is included in the bill. U.S. support for aid to Ukraine waned after nearly two years of war. Most House Republicans, and many Republican voters, are opposed to giving Ukraine more money, even as the presidents of both countries warn that it’s running out.
The European Union announced last week that it had reached a deal to include the equivalent of $54 billion dollars in funding for Ukraine in its budget over the next three years.
Murphy said the post- WW 2 world order is at stake due to the fact that bigger nations don’t get to expand their borders by invading smaller nations.
And he warned that if Russian President Vladimir Putin wins in Ukraine, he could potentially set his sights on a NATO country, which could put U.S. service members at risk.
“This is just a very important preventative step to stop the United States from getting dragged into an absolutely disastrous war,” he said. It is a cheap investment in our security and global security.