Source: Andrew Harnik, AP
In recent comments, President Biden has vowed to “shut down the border” if Congress passes the border security package being negotiated in the U.S. Senate, led by James Lankford (R-OK) and Chuck Schumer (D-NY).
According to the Immigration Accountability Project, who obtained leaked details, this deal would:
- Create an expedited removal program similar to Trump’s Title 42 removal program if Nationwide Border Encounters exceeded 5,000 per day over a 7 day period
- Increase Green Card issuance by 50,000 per year
- Grant immediate work permits to every illegal alien released from detention
- Issue work permits for 250,000+ adult children of H-1B visa holders
- Create funding for legal representation for certain Unaccompanied Alien Children (UACs)
- Restrict parole issuance for illegal aliens who did not enter at a legal port of entry.
Far from shutting down the border, this deal would allow nearly 1.83 million illegal crossings per year, a number that nearly doubles the largest year for Nationwide Border Encounters under the Trump Administration. It also fails to address the illegal humanitarian parole programs erected by the Biden Administration that go through ports of entry using the CBP One app, including internal ports of entry. These programs are responsible for millions of legally inadmissible aliens entering the United States since 2021.
Adding insult to injury, it offers unacceptable concessions on legal immigration, at a time when the foreign-born share of the U.S. population is at its highest point in recorded history.
This deal is a non-starter for conservatives, who have wisely been speaking out against the plan. In Lankford’s native Oklahoma, State Senator Dusty Deevers wrote a resolution condemning Senator Lankford for his role in negotiating the deal which was later passed by the Oklahoma Republican Party.
U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Mike Johnson has offered similar skepticism of the deal. Last May, the House passed H.R. 2, The Secure the Border Act of 2023, regarded by border security experts as the strongest border security bill ever passed by the body.
Regardless of what happens in Congress, however, President Biden has the authority under current federal immigration law to shut down the border immediately. As commentator Ryan Girdusky pointed out, there are several key sections of law empowering a sitting President to do so:
- 8 U.S.C. §1182 (f) – “Whenever the President finds that the entry of any aliens or of any class of aliens into the United States would be detrimental to the interests of the United States, he may by proclamation, and for such period as he shall deem necessary, suspend the entry of all aliens or any class of aliens as immigrants or nonimmigrants, or impose on the entry of aliens any restrictions he may deem to be appropriate.”
- 8 U.S.C. §1225 (b)(1)(A)(i) – “If an immigration officer determines that an alien (other than an alien described in subparagraph (F)) who is arriving in the United States or is described in clause (iii) is inadmissible under section 1182(a)(6)(C) or 1182(a)(7) of this title, the officer shall order the alien removed from the United States without further hearing or review unless the alien indicates either an intention to apply for asylum under section 1158 of this title or a fear of persecution.”
- 8 U.S.C. §1158 (a)(2)(A) – “Paragraph (1) shall not apply to an alien if the Attorney General determines that the alien may be removed, pursuant to a bilateral or multilateral agreement, to a country (other than the country of the alien’s nationality or, in the case of an alien having no nationality, the country of the alien’s last habitual residence) in which the alien’s life or freedom would not be threatened on account of race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group, or political opinion, and where the alien would have access to a full and fair procedure for determining a claim to asylum or equivalent temporary protection, unless the Attorney General finds that it is in the public interest for the alien to receive asylum in the United States.”
- 8. U.S.C. §1158 (b)(2)(A)(vi) – “the alien was firmly resettled in another country prior to arriving in the United States.”
President Biden could immediately suspend any aliens or any class of aliens into the United States at his own discretion for as long as he deems necessary. Instead, one of President Biden’s first actions after inauguration was to attempt a 100-day moratorium on deportations, an action that kick-started the invasion at our border that has led to over 10 million known illegal crossings (including known gotaways).
He could also direct DHS Secretary Mayorkas to begin expedited removal of all persons who are not seeking asylum, institute a Third Safe Country policy to stop Darien Gap Migration by which illegal aliens cross many international borders to reach the United States, and deny applications from many illegal aliens who were previously settled in other nations. Instead, President Biden suspended existing Third Safe Country agreements with El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras negotiated under the President Trump.
While President Biden blames slowed negotiations in Congress for the border crisis, the overwhelming evidence points to Biden himself as the instigator in chief of the cartel-backed invasion at our southern border.
A deal that would do nothing to change the actions of the Open Borders radicals within this administration should be firmly rejected by Republicans in the Senate and the House, and President Biden must be called upon to shoulder the responsibility for his acts of commission and omission that have led to the worst border crisis in our nation’s history.