Republicans unveil 'strongest immigration bill ever' two weeks before Title 42 termination
House Republicans unveiled a sprawling new border and immigration reform package that they say is the 'strongest immigration bill ever.'
The package brings together a Judiciary Committee bill on immigration law with a Homeland Security Committee bill on border restrictions and leaders said Thursday in a news conference they believe it has the backing of 218 - the number needed for it to pass the House.
'We put together the strongest immigration enforcement legislation ever. It deals with [unaccompanied children], it deals with the Flores situation, asylum, E-verify, and of course, the Remain in Mexico policy, as well as visa overstay issues,' Jim Jordan, chair of the Judiciary Committee, said in a news conference.
It comes as a caravan 3,000-strong is headed for Mexico City where they hope to pressure government officials to give them exit visas to allow them to continue on a journey to the U.S. border.
The group is made up of largely Venezuelans as well as some Asians and Chinese nationals.
Homeland Security Chair Mark Green talks about Republicans' new immigration package
The bill leaves out controversial asylum restrictions that revolted centrist Republicans like Rep. Tony Gonzales - Republicans nixed the provision that would force Sec. Alejandro Mayorkas to expel anyone who applies for asylum that his agency can't detain or relocate to Mexico.
Gonzales had called that idea, part of an original proposal put forward by fellow Texas Republican Rep. Chip Roy, 'un-Christian' and raised concerns over possibly legitimate asylum seekers.
Roy himself proposed an amendment to remove the asylum language during a lengthy Judiciary markup.
Gonzales' district is home to 800 miles of the 2,000 mile-long border between the U.S. and Mexico. The congressman even threatened to vote against Speaker Kevin McCarthy's debt ceiling plan if leadership jammed through the version of the bill he was unhappy with.
Judiciary Chair Jim Jordan, whose committee took the lead on the immigration reform part of the package, boasts it is the 'strongest immigration bill ever'
Asked if Gonzales was on board with the package, Foreign Affairs Chair Michael McCaul said: 'He supported it last night.'
GOP leadership has promised to bring the bill to the floor in May after McCarthy at one point said a border package would be the first item he brought to the floor as speaker. Such a package was delayed in part due to feuding between Freedom Caucus member Roy and centrist Gonzales.
Homeland Security's portion of the package would would restart construction of the border wall, increase the number of Border Patrol agents and modernize border security technology.
It would also prevent those seeking asylum from scheduling appointments via an app - the CBP One app - which was newly expanded for that purpose. The committee finished marking up that bill around 3 a.m. Thursday morning.
Rep. Bennie Thompson, top Democrat on the Homeland Security Committee, called the legislation 'profoundly immoral.'
He said it 'would sow chaos at the border by essentially shutting down the asylum process' and took issue with provisions that stripped government funding from nonprofits that provide humanitarian assistance to migrants.
The migrant caravan consists of Central and South Americans as well as foreign nationals from China and other Asian countries who are pressuring the Mexican government to provide buses for their transfer, documents for their registration and dialogue with high-ranking officials
Migrants march along the side of a highway in Alvaro Obregón, Chiapas, Monday
The complementary Judiciary bill would restrict asylum access at the border and increase penalties for violations. It would also limit the Homeland Security secretary's authority to grant humanitarian parole and mandate the use of E-verify for employers to ensure the employees they are hiring are legally living in the U.S.
McCaul acknowledged the bill would not garner Democrat votes, dooming it to failure in the Senate.
'This is an answer a solution,' he said. 'It should be bipartisan. It's sad it's not. I told Bennie Thompson that last night. Why can't this be bipartisan? We used to do that. We used to do that this is gonna be the Republican solution.'
Meanwhile Senate Republicans introduced their own border package that takes another dig at the funding to hire 87,000 IRS agents passed in Democrats' Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) -- redirecting $15 billion meant for the tax agency to the southern border.
That bill, led by Sens. Bill Cassidy and Tim Scott and co-sponsored by six others, would fund border inspections, the border wall and technologies for enforcement, end catch-and-release policies.
The new policy plays come as the deadline for Title 42 is fast-approaching - the pandemic-era public health policy that allows for immediate expulsion is set to expire on May 11.
On Thursday Mayorkas and Sec. of State Antony Blinken held a rare joint press conference to explain their path forward as Title 42 draw to a close.
'Our border is not open and will not be open after May 11th,' Mayorkas said, even as he said encounters would 'increase' once the policy is lifted.
The Department of Homeland Security has predicted agents could see as many as 10,000 migrant crossings per day once the policy expires.
The migrants expect to make the 750-mile journey to Mexico City within 10 days, but hope it could be cut short for many of the 3,000 people if the Mexican government provides ground transportation
The Biden administration plans to expand legal migration and open processing centers in South and Central America allowing migrants hoping to enter to be pre-screened to see if they meet basic qualifications for different forms of entry before making the journey.
The centers will begin operating in Guatemala and Colombia in the coming weeks. Canada and Spain have also agreed to accept migrants from the centers.
Republicans tore into the idea.
'The more you incentivize people, the bigger the wave will be. And all the processing centers do is provide more incentive, the door's even more open. "All I gotta do is get a coyote from the drug cartel to fill out my CBP one app for me,"' said Homeland Security Chair Mark Green in a news conference.
'What President Biden and Secretary Mayorkas are doing is doubling down on the failed policies that created this problem, rather than working with us to solve the problem. Again, we have the most generous, the most generous immigration system in the world. America lets in over a million people here legally into our country,' every year, said Majority Leader Scalise.
Source: Daily Mail
