For the last few days, this immigration deal that was worked on by a bipartisan group in the Senate has been in all the headlines.
That deal now appears to be dead, and some Senate Republicans tried to explain why.
Talking Points…
- Recent border numbers
- Border deal DOA
- Analysis
In December 2023, a new record for migrant encounters at the border was announced, with a total of 371,000 illegal immigrant encounters reported across all fronts. The majority of that was at the southern border, with roughly 250,000 encounters taking place there.
The December number is an increase of 23.5% over the previous month, and it just demolished the previous overall record dating back to the spring of 2022. Since Biden took office, more than 6.3 million encounters have taken place at the southern border alone, with an estimated 2.4 million of them having already been released into the country’s interior. This does not include the number of getaways and the number of legal immigrants who did things the right way.
The new deal, at least from what I have seen of it, was more smoke and mirrors. For instance, part of the deal was giving Biden the authority to close down entry points when more than 5,000 migrants crossed the border on average over a two-week span. The legislation would permit Biden to close the port of entry until the number fell below 3,750.
However, Biden has already had to close ports of entry due to being overwhelmed, so that is nothing more than window dressing. What is not, however, is that the legislation would also offer green cards for the Afghanistan migrants from Biden’s disastrous withdrawal, many of whom were not properly vetted. The deal would also increase legal immigration numbers as well as permit the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to release thousands of illegal migrants to the country’s interior every few days.
In other words, this is just an extension of everything that Biden has been doing already, which is why Republicans are finally waking up and looking to kill the deal. This is why Speaker Johnson (R-LA) declared the legislation DOA upon arrival in the House and why Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) openly criticized the legislation, stating:
“Senate Republican leadership’s deal with the Democrats is dead on arrival in the House. The border package doesn’t even come close to securing the border.”
South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem, a frontrunner to be Trump’s VP, added:
“The border deal would [do] NOTHING to secure the border. In fact, it would [codify] the open border!
“Joe Biden doesn’t need a deal to secure the border TODAY.”
As I stated in a previous report, if I thought this deal was good for the country, regardless of who was in the White House, I would back it, but that is not the case. This is all about Joe Biden trying to flip the national narrative on immigration, and Republicans are not going to allow that to happen.
If this bill passed, as far as the mainstream media is concerned, the immigration problem would have been handled, and they would not cover it any longer. So, what Republicans need to do is ensure that everyone knows the full details of what this plan did and did not do because the media is currently making this about Trump blocking the legislation and Republicans refusing to “just take a win” when this legislation is nothing more than political fluff.
