The Senate immigration deal would only make the border crisis worse

On the heels of the worst month ever recorded at our southern border, a Senate deal is being quietly negotiated by Republican lawmakers. Desperate to secure more money for Ukraine, they are attempting to mollify public concern over the chaos that has reigned at the border since President Biden took office three years ago.

No one has seen actual bill text, but based on leaked details, it’s obvious why Sen. James Lankford (R-Okla.), the leading negotiator, and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), are holding it close.

The reported deal does not stop the border crisis that Biden has created, and which he could end tomorrow with a stroke of his pen. In fact, this deal would make matters worse — all while giving Biden and sanctuary jurisdictions political and financial gifts.

From what we have learned about this deal, it would make the current border chaos permanent, tying the hands of future administrations to stop it.

It would permit up to 150,000 illegal crossings per month (5,000 every day, 1.8 million per year) before a new “shutdown” authority could be invoked. For now, the authority to invoke this will be vested in a president who openly defies current law when it comes to immigration.

Biden already has the authority he needs to secure the border. He just doesn’t want to.

The mentioned rate of 5,000 illegal crossings per day is roughly the current rate of illegal immigration. In 2019, President Barack Obama’s secretary of Homeland Security, Jeh Johnson, said, “We are truly in a crisis.” He continued, “I know that 1,000 [apprehensions] overwhelms the system and I cannot begin to imagine what 4,000 a day looks like.” Just four years later, Senate Republicans are promoting a deal that codifies an even higher level of illegal crossings.

Even if a so-called “shutdown” were to happen, based entirely on numbers the administration would be trusted to provide, the offer of accelerated work permits would only incentivize more asylum fraud at authorized ports of entry. And Biden’s unlawful mass parole programs would continue unabated at American airports.

The deal also contains deceptive provisions that appear to toughen enforcement, but would actually have the opposite effect. For example, the deal claims to make detention mandatory for single adult males, even though current law already provides for the mandatory detention of all individuals who enter illegally, which the Biden administration of course refuses to execute.

If you can believe it, this mass migration rubber-stamp actually gets worse.

The proposal would provide billions in taxpayer dollars to bail out sanctuary cities and states that continue to provide social services to illegal immigrants. It would also pay their immigration attorneys’ fees in the deportation process, and continue to fund corrupt, open-borders non-profits that are deliberately facilitating mass migration into the U.S.

Late last week, Republican negotiators were rightfully met with outrage from constituents, colleagues and issue experts. The deal was on the brink of collapse. But instead of taking a hard look in the mirror and uniting behind the strong, House-passed Secure the Border Act, McConnell shifted the blame to former President Donald Trump. He handed the Biden White House and Senate Democrats a helpful talking point, apparently out of spite.

So Republicans supposedly walked away from a strong, bipartisan deal (or so they claim) that would end the crisis, just so that Trump could run on the issue this fall? Nonsense.

Biden and his supporters have parrotted this narrative, but the truth is that he can end this crisis he created any time he wants. He need only enforce current law and bring back the effective policies issued by his predecessor.

Biden already has at his disposal Section 212(f), which he at one point invoked in order to prevent the spread of COVID-19. He can reimplement a version of Trump’s Remain in Mexico policy. He can also detain more illegal border-crossers and rescind his other executive actions that started this entire mess.

The only effect of this Senate deal would be to let Biden escape accountability and blame others for his own actions. And ironically, this proposed deal would make it harder for a second-term Trump administration to truly secure the border.

Biden’s border catastrophe — the worst in our nation’s history — has rightfully made border security the top issue going into a critical 2024 election. The only measure of legislation or executive actions should be whether they would truly secure the border.

The negotiated deal, as reported, is a backroom political ploy that would make permanent Biden’s tools for causing chaos and an open border. It would give him billions of dollars more to continue funding an unlimited illegal immigration agenda. The American people will not be fooled by this.

Kevin D. Roberts is president of The Heritage Foundation and Heritage Action for America. Mark Morgan, former acting commissioner of Customs and Border Protection, and Tom Homan, former acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, are Heritage visiting fellows.