Senator Mike Lee Explains Just How Bad The Border Bill Is

But, first, let’s go to National Review, which apparently did not get rid of all their squishes. Noah Rothman apparently thinks this is a case of a hawkish bill meeting a dovish GOP, meaning those who are against it

But then, perhaps the border provisions in this bill aren’t central to the GOP’s opposition — that’s certainly the impression one gets from the rump of malcontents in the Republican House conference who, given the meagerness of the GOP’s majority, can control the agenda. To hear them and influential outsiders loyal to Donald Trump talk about the bill, the biggest problem with it is the funding it provides to Ukraine for its defense against a Russian invasion. Indeed, the whole reason why funding for Ukraine was included in a comprehensive bill designed to address all of America’s mounting challenges abroad at once was to help GOP lawmakers swallow that pill. The ploy seems to have backfired. As Ron DeSantis’s press secretary, Jeremy Redfern, put it, given the $60 billion devoted to providing Ukrainians with ordnance, the bill provides “more cash to protect Ukraine’s border than our border.”

Noah wants the GOP to cave on a bill that contains a whole bunch of good stuff, but, has A LOT of really bad stuff that codifies lots of illegals and migrants, and still incentivizes them to come illegally. Andrew C McCarthy conversely writes at NRO that it should be killed off

On X/Twitter, Fox News’ superb reporter Bill Melugin has a good analysis of the long-awaited Senate border legislation. It is very fair in presenting what is enticing about the proposal. The problem is that what is enticing is disingenuous and, ultimately, counterproductive.

That is to say, the good in the bipartisan Senate negotiators’ proposal — and there definitely is some — (a) can already be accomplished under current law, and (b) would require faith that the Biden administration will for some reason enforce these provisions even though it has systematically refused to enforce existing border-security provisions. More important, to get the illusory good in the proposal, Congress would have to enact provisions in the deal that would both undermine existing statutory restrictions and etch into our law magnets for illegal immigration.

The most significant aspect of the deal (which can be read here) is the one the senators tout as, in effect, not merely forcing an immediate shutdown of the border but ending the main driver of illegal immigration — ending, as Melugin aptly puts it, “the whole idea of ‘I made it to U.S. soil, you have to process me.’”

Immediately, we detect the flaw in the senators’ calculations that I have repeatedly emphasized (see, e.g., here, here, and here): Both legally and practically speaking, the border can be shut down, right this instant. There is no legal requirement that any alien who sets foot on American soil be permitted to apply for asylum (which is a discretionary act of national clemency, not a right of the alien). There is similarly no mandate that such aliens be routed into a “process” that enables them to remain — even though their first contact with our nation is to flout its laws, and even though empowering illegal aliens this way is patently harmful to aliens who are attempting to enter by complying with our laws.

Let’s say this horrible bill passes: does anyone think Biden will actually do a damned thing to shut the border if he wins in November? He’s trying to look tough now with an election coming up and an electorate which is incensed by what’s going on. He wins, the border is right back to what he’s done the last three years.

Let’s go to Senator Lee. Putting it under the more tag, it’s long

1. CODIFIES CATCH AND RELEASE: Gives the Secretary of Homeland Security unchecked authority to release an alien into the United States under ineffective “alternatives to detention.” The illegals only have to express “credible fear” of persecution or the intent to apply for “protection determination.” (SEC. 235B)
2. ALLOWS UP TO 1.8 MILLION ILLEGAL ALIENS TO ENTER BEFORE TEMPORARILY CLOSING PARTS OF THE BORDER: The Secretary of Homeland Security is only required to shut down the border if there are 5,000 average illegal crossings over a consecutive seven-day period or 8,500 in a single day. The Secretary may shut down the border if crossings are at 4,000 daily average over a consecutive seven-day period. Even during a border emergency, this bill requires the administration to process a minimum of 1,400 illegal immigrants a day. This is 400 more per day than Obama’s DHS Secretary Jeh Johnson said constituted a crisis in 2019. (SEC. 244B) (WT note – there are lots of loopholes to all this, as mentioned at the link)
3. FUNDS SANCTUARY CITIES AND NGOs SENDING ILLEGALS AROUND THE COUNTRY: Includes $1.4 BILLION for more FEMA grants to NGOs that provide shelter, transportation, legal advice and other services to illegal aliens and $2.3 BILLION to HHS for Refugee Entrant And Assistance, a slush fund for services to unaccompanied alien children.
4. SUBSIDIZES FREE, TAXPAYER-FUNDED LEGAL COUNSEL TO ILLEGAL ALIENS: Orders the Secretary of Health and Human Services to ensure that “all unaccompanied alien children who are or have been in the custody of the Secretary of Health and Human Services or the Secretary of Homeland Security…have counsel to represent them in legal proceedings” and free legal counsel for any illegal alien who a judge determines is mentally “incompetent.” Mandates that the government provide legal counsel for UACs 13 years old and under. (SEC. 3512-3513)
5. EXPANDS PAROLE INSTEAD OF LIMITING IT: Does nothing to meaningfully limit President Biden’s abuse of parole. The language makes a fake exemption that seems to sanction Mayorkas’ current abuse of parole. Under this bill, Mayorkas can parole in all these groups with the implicit approval of Congress. It also creates a dangerous EXPANSION of parole by saying it can now be granted for anyone the DHS Secretary determines has an “urgent humanitarian reason” to stay and any “culturally important purpose warranting the alien’s presence in the United States on Tribal land located at or near an international land border.” (SEC. 3146)
6. INCREASES GREEN CARDS BY 50,000 PER YEAR FOR FIVE YEARS: This includes 32,000 family-based green cards and 18,000 employment-based green cards.  Hurts American workers by importing cheap foreign labor. (SEC. 3402)
7. WORK PERMIT FOR ADULT CHILDREN OF H-1B VISA HOLDERS: Hurts American workers by providing indefinite work permits to an estimated 250,000 adult children of H-1B nonimmigrant visa holders who will be competing for jobs with recent college graduates. (SEC. 3403)
8. IMMEDIATE WORK PERMITS TO EVERY ILLEGAL RELEASED FROM CUSTODY AFTER THEY PASS AN INITIAL SCREENING: Current law requires a 6 months waiting period after filing an asylum claim before you can apply for a work permit. Under this bill, applicants are granted an IMMEDIATE work permit if they pass the initial asylum credible fear screening. (SEC. 235C)
9. NOTHING TO DEPORT ILLEGALS: Does not require the President or Secretary of Homeland Security to deport anyone. (booting illegals and migrants who do not qualify for asylum ASAP should be a huge component)
10. AFGHAN ADJUSTMENT ACT: Creates a pathway to citizenship for over 60,000 poorly vetted Afghans who were brought to the country due to President Biden’s disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan. (SEC. 331) (do we really know who these folks are? Do they end up living in Islamic extremist enclaves like the Somalis in the Minneapolis area?)
11. WEAKENS ASYLUM SCREENING BY CODIFYING BIDEN POLICY: Codifies the Biden asylum officer regulation and empowers USCIS asylum officers to grant asylum, withholding of removal, and protection under the Convention Against Torture without review by an Immigration Judge, ensuring significantly higher approval rates. (SEC. 3141)
12. NO IMMEDIATE FUNDING FOR THE WALL: The bill claims to give $650 million for “building the border wall.” This is a budgeting gimmick without any new money. The bill would simply rescind current money and then put it back in with a later date (FY2028) so that President Biden and Sec. Mayorkas don’t have to build any wall and can delay spending money on the border wall. (SEC. 205)

It’s a mess, and those Republicans who negotiated on this should be primaried out.

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