Research Assistant Professor
TRAC-Syracuse
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Immigration Bill Flops Just Hours After Released
A proposed immigration bill released to the public by a Senate committee on Sunday has already been declared “dead on arrival”.
FEB 4, 2024
The Senate finally released the full text of its long-awaited bipartisan immigration bill on Sunday evening.
If passed, the bill would:
- fund military support for Ukraine and Israel while defunding UNRWA
- establish new emergency powers that would allow the president to shut down the border
- create a higher threshold for credible fear interviews and new asylum pathways at the US-Mexico border
- provide a pathway to green cards for Afghan refugees in the United States
- expands electronic monitoring and immigrant detention
- and make a range of other changes to the immigration system—some good for migrants, some bad
It also provides more funding to immigration agencies, including:
- $440M for IJs
- $12M to combat smuggling
- $7B to CBP
- $8B to ICE
- $4B to USCIS
I read the bill tonight twice. I am still thinking through not simply the text of the bill, but what the bill represents as a vision for immigration change. What are the values that this bill represents? How would these provisions be implemented in practice? How would we measure the effects of these various changes?
Excerpt of the Senate Immigration Bill.
But don’t feel like you need to get too into the weeds here. The likelihood that the bill will live through the night is looking slim as people from across the political spectrum fight over pillows to smother the bill in its sleep tonight.
Prominent conservatives are already up in arms over the fact that the emergency border powers don’t kick in until several thousand encounters per day. They read the text as saying that anything less than 5,000 is, therefore, “acceptable”.
Most of these talking points align closely to Donald Trump’s goal of preventing the bill from moving forward (even though is captures many classic Republican immigration goals and very few of Democrats’) so that he can run on the “immigration crisis” in the next election.
House Speaker Mike Johnson said on a certain website that Shall Not Be Named:
I’ve seen enough. This bill is even worse than we expected, and won’t come close to ending the border catastrophe the President has created. As the lead Democrat negotiator proclaimed: Under this legislation, “the border never closes.” If this bill reaches the House, it will be dead on arrival.
Prominent progressives have also rejected the viability of the bill on grounds that it eviscerates asylum. Las Americas, an immigrant rights advocacy group in El Paso, Texas, released a statement tonight that included the following bleak assessment:
“Closing the border, creating a new ‘metering’ system, and debilitating our asylum laws will do nothing to address the underlying issues that force vulnerable children and families to flee their homes, seeking safety and a better life. Although the bill contains small silver linings, they come at too high a cost. This deal will ultimately subject more families to an unsafe migratory journey. They will be forced to wait on the other side of the border for days or even weeks, which will further expose them to those who will prey upon them as they try to navigate these impossible policies.
I’ve looked for supporters and so far, the only one I can find, are the folks at the Niskanen Center who released a statement tonight praising bipartisan efforts:
We applaud the bipartisan group of Senators who have invested weeks of hard work to negotiate a border security compromise. Despite facing opposition and resistance from their parties and leaders, Senators Chris Murphy, James Lankford, and Kyrsten Sinema have continued to work towards a solution palatable to Members on both sides of the aisle while ensuring that Congress can ultimately unlock much-needed supplemental funding to aid our allies.
I’m sure we’ll see the immigration bill in the news first thing in the morning, although the coverage is likely to be mostly negative.
My suggestion is, if you read this, you’ve probably given the bill as much attention as you need to give it for now. Don’t get too excited or upset. Spend your limited emotional energy on something else, because I don’t think this is going anywhere.
To access the full text of the bill, click the link below.
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Thanks, Austin! Sounds like prudent advice for conserving energy and focusing on the battle to save lives while maintaining good emotional health regardless of whether this bill or some version of it ever becomes law!
🇺🇸 Due Process Forever!
PWS
02-05-24