Negotiators release $118 billion border bill as GOP leaders call it dead in the House

Left: Sen. James Lankford, R-Okla., speaks on border security and Title 42 during a press conference at the Capitol on May 11, 2023. Right: Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., at a press conference on Jan. 23 in Washington, D.C. Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images; Samuel Corum/Getty Images hide caption

Left: Sen. James Lankford, R-Okla., speaks on border security and Title 42 during a press conference at the Capitol on May 11, 2023. Right: Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., at a press conference on Jan. 23 in Washington, D.C.

Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images; Samuel Corum/Getty Images

After months of negotiations, a trio of Senate negotiators unveiled a $118 billion bipartisan agreement to overhaul some key Biden administration immigration policies. But the legislation is already hitting a brick wall in the House where GOP leaders are declaring it "dead on arrival."

"The deal creates a real opportunity for Congress to address our borders and make progress to a more efficient and well-resourced system," Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., told reporters after details of the proposal were released.

The bill is part of a national security funding package that includes additional money for Ukraine and Israel. But as the issue of the border becomes a central flashpoint in the 2024 presidential campaign, and former President Trump publicly urges GOP lawmakers to oppose the deal, the prospects for the bill reaching President Biden's desk seem bleak.

The bill includes:

• Just over $20 billion for border provisions, including expansions to existing policies and new policies. That includes $650 million for the border wall, approximately $4 billion to hire new asylum officers and additional funds to provide counsel for unaccompanied children.
• $60.06 billion in security aid for Ukraine.
• $14.1 billion in aid for Israel.
• $10 billion in humanitarian assistance for civilians in Gaza, the West Bank, Ukraine and "other populations caught in conflict zones."
• $2.33 billion for refugees from the war in Ukraine.
• $4.83 billion for allies to "deter aggression by the Chinese government" in the Indo-Pacific region.

The proposal installs several tools to address the border, including: requiring the president shut down the border if the numbers of migrants hits a specific threshold; adjusting the rules for who qualifies for asylum; expediting the process for deciding asylum claims; and allowing migrants authorization to work while awaiting adjudication of their asylum claim.

For several months Oklahoma Republican Sen. Jim Lankford, Connecticut Democratic Sen. Chris Murphy and Arizona independent Sen. Kyrsten Sinema have worked on a plan to address the record number of migrants crossing the U.S.-Mexico border.

Politics

If the border deal gets through Senate Republicans, it could still fail in the House

If the border deal gets through Senate Republicans, it could still fail in the House

Schumer said Sunday that he plans to move the bill this week, with a key vote on Wednesday. "Senators must shut out the noise from those who want this agreement to fail for their own political agendas," Schumer wrote in a statement.

But House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., has already made clear that the bill has no future beyond the Senate.

"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," Johnson posted on X, the social media site formerly known as Twitter.

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…

The bill is not the type of comprehensive immigration legislation that Congress considered but failed to advance more than a decade ago. Instead, negotiators focused their time on addressing the discreet problems facing border officials and border towns as record numbers of migrants continue to cross the U.S. border with Mexico.

In a statement, Biden said while the bipartisan agreement doesn't address everything he wanted, the reforms are essential for making the border more orderly, secure, fair and humane. He pointed to key provisions in the proposal, including new presidential emergency authority to shut down the border when it becomes overwhelmed and make the asylum process fairer and more efficient.

"If you believe, as I do, that we must secure the border now, doing nothing is not an option. Working with my administration, the United States Senate has done the hard work it takes to reach a bipartisan agreement," Biden said. "Now, House Republicans have to decide. Do they want to solve the problem? Or do they want to keep playing politics with the border?"

Before the bill was unveiled, Biden vowed recently, while campaigning in South Carolina, he would sign it and shut down the border.

The proposal directs the president to shut down the border in moments of high migrant traffic

Sinema characterized the bill as ending "catch and release" policies. The bill would require those crossing the border illegally to be detained or immediately returned to Mexico, Sinema told reporters on Sunday.

"We actually have to change the outdated policies that have allowed our border crisis to get too out of control," she said.

She said the bill also includes higher standards for asylum and would speed up the process for asylum seekers to ensure a hearing on their case within six months.

She clarified that there would be a mandated border shutdown when migrant traffic reaches 5,000 "approaches" per day, and the president would have the option to institute a shutdown at earlier points.