The ‘Border Security’ Deal Is Utter Trash, but There’s One Provision That Is Just Infuriating

by Bonchie

On Sunday evening, the long-awaited text of the Senate’s “border security” deal was released. Despite claims from Sen. Kyrsten Sinema and Sen. James Lankford that prior leaks were incorrect, the bill turned out to be just as bad as suspected, and as I’m about to illustrate, perhaps even worse.

Naturally, because the motivation for this bill has never been the border crisis, Ukraine funding dominates the first part of the text, with another $60 billion being sent to the Eastern European nation. Do Americans get a secure Southern Border in return? That answer is made clear by several awful provisions, the worst of which we’ll get to later in the article.

The one that’s receiving the most attention was leaked in the week before the Senate released the text. Namely, it says that the “border emergency authority” does not even kick in until 5,000 illegal immigrants are “encountered” at the border. That comes out to 1.8 million illegal entries a year before any of the provisions for automatic deportation kick in.

And there it is… what Sinema and Lankford swore wasn’t in the bill.

It guarantees that up to 1.8 million illegal aliens can come over our border before it’s an emergency pic.twitter.com/i05pNH29YV

— Ryan James Girdusky (@RyanGirdusky) February 5, 2024

So what happens before the 5,000 threshold is met? According to the bill, single adults would be detained while the policy of catch-and-release would remain in place for families. Minor children would be released into the custody of the Office of Refugee Resettlement. That would simply incentivize more people to show up claiming to be families, and while the bill includes a pittance for DNA testing, there doesn’t appear to be any requirement that it’s used.

Supposedly, that’s mitigated by changes to asylum rules that would fast-track processing times to just a few months instead of the current multi-year fiasco. To do that, the authority to decide asylum claims would be handed off from judges to the United States Citizens and Immigration Services department. Who runs that and would have large amounts of discretion in deciding claims? That would be the Biden administration.

Further, the “parole authority” that has been so abused will remain in place for Haitians, Venezuelans, Cubans, and Nicaraguans. In practice, that means a large part of the illegal immigration problem will continue unabated.

There’s more, though. Guess which court this bill deems the sole authority in deciding constitutional challenges to it? That would be the far-left United States District Court for the District of Columbia, meaning even the “good” parts of the bill would likely be stripped out by judicial fiat.

Puts far left DC district court in charge pic.twitter.com/sU8VKtvkXh

— Mike Howell (@MHowellTweets) February 4, 2024

Does any of that sound like a serious attempt to secure the border? Now, what if I told you we haven’t gotten to the worst part, yet?

As bad as everything I’ve just noted is, none of it even matters. Why? Because this bill gives President Joe Biden sole authority to override all the emergency provisions that supposedly kick in after 5,000 illegal entries. In other words, as laughably high as that threshold is, it’s not even enforceable.

Not only does this bill codify 1.5 million illegal border crossings into law, but the "border emergency" that automatically gets implemented at 5,000 crossings per day in a week can be overturned by Joe Biden.

And in case 1.5 million illegals isn't enough, it also locks in green… pic.twitter.com/pZRV4iymph

— Greg Price (@greg_price11) February 5, 2024

All the president has to do is find it’s “not in the national interest,” and he can simply override the emergency provisions and largely return the border to its current state. This is a “deal” that rigs the game in plain sight. For that reason alone, it should be set on fire, rhetorically speaking, of course.

Past that, just to add the last touch of icing on this rotten cake, the bill severely limits how long the “border emergency authority” provisions can even be in place, and again, that’s assuming Biden wouldn’t just nullify them on a whim.

More: The border shutdown authority has limits on how many days it can be in place, and its allowable use drops each year. pic.twitter.com/aBzxP30xgG

— Bill Melugin (@BillMelugin_) February 5, 2024

One only needs to see the Democratic Party’s response to know how horrible this bill is. Here’s Sen. Chris Murphy, who helped negotiate it, giving the game away.

In short, Ukraine gets a bunch of cash, some insanely weak border enforcement provisions are put in place that expire after three years, and Biden gets the authority to override them immediately anyway. Does that sound like something Republicans should be signing onto, especially in an election year? This nonsense is DOA, and the House should rip it apart and shove it back in the face of the Senate.

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