Ineffective and Problematic Senate Border Bill Rises from the Dead
More Frankenstein than Lazarus, a stunt to shift blame to the GOP for the border
By Andrew R. Arthur on May 21, 2024
The Washington Times has reported that Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) plans to bring an ineffective and problematic border bill — negotiated in secret by Sens. James Lankford (R-Okla.), Krysten Sinema (I-Ariz.), and Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) with the assistance of DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas in the late fall and early winter — to the floor for a vote. That bill looked dead on arrival shortly after it was unveiled, and no one thinks it’s going to pass the Senate this time, so Schumer’s plan is really more a political stunt to shift blame for the border catastrophe to the GOP than a legislative strategy. If they hope to fix the border, the GOP and security-minded Democrats should have a better response than the first time this proposal saw the light of day.
Chaos at the Border. This bill is only an issue because the border has been in a state of chaos since shortly after President Biden took office in January 2021.
In the 14 fiscal years prior to FY 2021, apprehensions at the Southwest border never exceeded 860,000 and topped 800,000 just twice — in FY 2007 (858,638) and in FY 2019 (851,508).
In response to that latter border surge, then-President Trump implemented a number of policies to deter illegal migrants by denying them the ability to live and work in the United States while their removal hearings were proceeding, most famously (and successfully) the Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP), better known as “Remain in Mexico”.
https://cis.org/Arthur/Ineffective-and-Problematic-Senate-Border-Bill-Rises-Dead
