Republican Senators Stiff-arm Democratic Rush for Border Deal

Republican Senators are stiff-arming a rush by Democrats and White House officials to redirect and hide chaotic border migration during the 2024 election.

“Rushed and secret negotiations with Democrats who want an open border and who caused the current crisis will not secure the border,” said a letter from 15 GOP Senators to Sen. John Barrasso (R-WY) who is a deputy to GOP leader, Sen Mitch McConnell (R-KY). The December 17 letter says:

The American public deserves an open and transparent process which cannot occur until the House returns the week of January 8, 2024. Accordingly, we request this Conference be held the week of January Sth, but not before.

The letter is signed by a wide range of Senators, including Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH), Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO), Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL), and Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), who launched the 2013 “Gang of Eight” amnesty push. The letter is aimed at Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY), who is overseeing the border negotiations.

The letter is bad news for the White House because President Joe Biden needs a quick deal to minimize the visibility of the migration flood throughout the 2024 election.

Biden’s election problem is that his Cuban-born, pro-migration border chief  — Alejandro Mayorkas — has created an out-of-control border flood in a campaign year. On Sunday, for example, Biden’s deputies closed legal routes across the border to reassign the border officers to the mission of registering and releasing Biden’s flood of illegal migrants.

More than 10,000 illegal migrants are flooding across the border each day — in addition to thousands who sneak over the border or fly into airports alongside thousands of legal immigrants and temporary workers. That adds up to 3 million more illegal migrants before election day — and many are already on their way to the border.

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The eager-to-work migrants are traveling to cities around the country, often without any resources or the ability to speak English. Their numbers are so great that cities have burned through the 2023 federal cash that is intended to quietly distribute, house, and feed the migrants.

The visible flood is breaking public support for Democratic politicians, for migration in general, and for Biden’s re-election chances. For example, a mid-December poll of 1,007 voters for Fox News showed that a 46 percent plurality of voters who earn less than $50,000 say legal immigration hurts the country more than it helps.

But Biden’s far-left base means he cannot stop the inflow by adopting President Donald Trump’s border policies. The far-left base has been convinced mass migration is Americans’ noble gift to the world’s poor – and so it strongly opposes any significant curbs on migration.

Now Biden’s deputies are using the Ukraine war as cover for an election-year crackdown.

On October 7, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer voluntarily paired the migration issue with the Ukraine war: He staged a doomed vote on a $111 package of spending bills that support aid to Ukraine, Israel, and Taiwan — and also provided the White House with an extra $14 billion to control the migrant flowing during the election year.

All GOP Senators blocked the combined spending because they know the $14 billion in border spending is a “magnet” for more migrants. For example, the bill includes $800 million to bus and fly migrants through Central America, and at least $1.4 billion to shelter migrants in U.S. cities.

Democrats politicians immediately blamed the defeat on GOP collusion with Russia in pursuit of a “radical” border bill.

Shortly after, Schumer, the GOP, and the White House have launched close-door talks about the spending package.

Media coverage is focused on the White House spin. The spin says the Democrats are reluctantly agreeing to accept some GOP border priorities, including curbs on job-seeking economic migrants who claim to be seeking asylum after crossing through several safe countries to reach the United States. But White House officials want to have those asylum curbs because it allows them to block surplus migrants.

Meanwhile, White House officials are firmly opposing other GOP priorities, especially any curbs on the quasi-legal “parole” doorway. That doorway is being used to quietly fly roughly 500,000 foreigners each into airports, jobs, and homes far from the border and TV cameras.

Parole is the primary way that Biden’s deputies are importing more migrant workers, consumers, and renters for their business allies. The migrants also serve as customers for the Democratic Party’s base of teachers and non-profit groups — and maybe as voters for Democratic legislators.

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“There are still significant [negotiating] gaps in key areas: -Parole authority -Detention of all asylum-seeking migrants -Nationwide expansion of expedited removal,” said a December 16 tweet from NBC News.

Reporters are seeing through the Democrats’ spin.

The talks are “a gamble for Mr. Biden, who risks walking away from some of the most deeply held principles of the Democratic Party and angering key parts of his core constituency, such as progressives and young voters,” said a December 16 New York Times article. The article continued:

“There’s no doubt there’s been a shift on this partly because of the influx of these migrants in these big cities,” said David Axelrod, a top adviser to former President Barack Obama. “There are limits to where he can and should go but this [border deal] is almost a gift to have, under the cover of this broad package, to be able to do things that were perhaps tougher to do before.”

…

The fact that Republicans have refused to support further aid for Ukraine without a new crackdown on immigration may give Mr. Biden that opportunity, said pollsters, political experts and some Democrats.

…

Mr. Biden’s aides say he is trying to find a compromise to secure financial aid that Ukraine needs to win the war against Russia. They say Mr. Biden’s approach is not comparable to that of Mr. Trump, who separated thousands of families at the border.

GOP politicians know that Biden got himself into his political problem and needs to pay a price to the GOP for any help.

“You’ve created a nightmare,” Graham told NBC on Sunday, December 17, adding:

It’s bitten you in the ass, and you need to change policy … we’re not going to take a Band-Aid approach as a solution.

Graham waived away NBC’s excuse-making for Biden’s immigration flood, saying:

They’re coming here for economic opportunity. They’re not fleeing oppression. Under international law, you’re supposed to apply for asylum in the first safe third country. Seventy percent of the people would be denied asylum under international law, but Biden chooses to ignore the law. This is not people running for their lives. They’re running here because the border’s wide open. They think if they get here and make an asylum claim, they never leave.

“If we make asylum really asylum [not job-seeking, if we enforce international law and stop blanket parole, yes, I think it will get through,” he said.

But Democrats insist that a deal must be rushed to prevent a crisis in Ukraine.

“I know Senator Schumer thinks there is going to be a deal cut behind closed doors and then jam it through the Senate and then jam the House,” Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) told “Fox News Sunday.”

“That’s not going to happen,” he added.