The southern border is an absolute mess, and let's not forget that President Joe Biden made it that way. He keeps complaining that Congress needs to send him a bill for him to secure the border, but as Katie has highlighted at length, that's a lie. Biden even signed an executive action immediately upon taking office that dismissed the emergency. He's not the only Democrat, though, not helping the issue.
When it comes to the border bill, let's not forget that what it really is, as Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) reminded in a conversation with Townhall, is a "border surrender bill." That hasn't stopped Democrats and their allies in the mainstream media from claiming that Republicans don't actually want to fix the issue, especially since it could help Donald Trump.
In one post from last week, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) highlighted a win-win kind of situation for the president as he shared coverage from POLITICO, "White House stays the course on border talks — despite Trump’s interference."
Biden people admit they don’t want to secure the border
— Marco Rubio (@marcorubio) January 26, 2024
What they want is bipartisan support for a Senate bill they know is dead in House & that he will never enforce anyways
Then he can both keep the border open AND blame House GOP for it https://t.co/ziXU27lpeY
POLITICO has indeed been covering the border quite a bit, especially with its recent editions of Playbook. "Can Dems flip the border script?," asked the AM edition for Tuesday, while that afternoon's edition highlighted how "GOP conference rages against border deal." Opposition to the plan from House Republicans and Trump was indeed mentioned.
But, even the media is beginning to point fingers at Democrats as well, even as the House GOP and Trump are getting a lot of blame on how such a deal might ultimately tank.
A few weeks ago, POLITICO had also put out a headline addressing "The border deal’s forgotten problem: Progressives," which highlighted how it's Democratic members who are actually being the petty and unrelenting ones here. And Tuesday's Playbook also addressed Democrats' concerns by highlighting remarks from Sen. Alex Padilla of California:
‘ABSOLUTELY DISAPPOINTED’ — Last year, as the bipartisan Senate border talks took shape, Sen. ALEX PADILLA (D-Calif.) sounded a warning to negotiators: Don’t cut a deal that denies asylum to migrants and expect Democrats to fall lockstep into line
He cited concerns about the process, a lack of transparency and the demographics of the negotiators at the table — not a Latino or border-state Democrat among them. But over the past two months he stepped back as the talks played out — until now. With details of the deal expected to be unveiled within days, Padilla spoke with Playbook about his serious and ongoing qualms.
On his views of the developing deal: “Initially it was about the specific restrictions or changing the credible fear standard for asylum seekers. ... Lately it’s been about the numbers: The numbers are too high, the numbers are unstable, et cetera. Like, you can make the asylum system as hard as you want, and you can build a wall as high as you want. You’re never going to reduce the numbers sustainably until you look at the root cause. … We know solutions that work, but they don’t seem to be in the package or on the table at this time.”
On what a deal he negotiated would include: “We ought to be looking at expanding legal pathways for people to come who are willing to work and match them with employers who need workers. ... It’s important to remind my colleagues and the public it is not unlawful to come seeking asylum. It’s not automatically granted. In fact, the minority of people who seek asylum eventually earn asylum and its protections.”
On Biden’s new promise to “shut down the border” if it becomes overwhelmed: “I’m absolutely disappointed, [and it’s] very different than the pledges and promises he made as a candidate for president in 2020. ... He knows that Trump-era policies don’t work, that they make the problem worse. … It’s one thing to try to negotiate or consider legislation through the lens of how this president may use it, but we can’t lose sight of ... how a future president may abuse it.”
On whether Biden and Democrats need to get tougher on immigration: “I think people ought to be focused more on being smarter than looking tougher.”
The obvious concern there is the discussion on amnesty, even as it's wrapped up in fancy phrasing like "expanding legal pathways for people who are willing to work..." But, it's also worth reminding that there are Democrats who don't think Biden is being lenient enough despite how he and his administration have left the border wide open, with record-high encounters and the problems that go with it.
There's also coverage from The Hill, which on Tuesday also published a piece claiming "House Republicans poised to torpedo GOP’s best chance in years to pass border bill" has even started to take note as well. "Senate’s border bill faces unexpected problem: Democrats," read a headline from Thursday.
Both articles from POLITICO and The Hill on progressives cite figures like Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-WA), who chairs the Congressional Progressive Caucus, as well as a taste for amnesty. The latter also mentions the Congressional Hispanic Caucus (CHC) and concerns from those members:
As The Hill acknowledges:
Until now, it appeared that the greatest threat to the emerging national security package would be House Republicans, who are vowing to quash the legislation in no uncertain terms.
But if conservatives are lining up against the legislation for being too soft on would-be migrants, liberal Democrats are bashing it for being too hard on the same group.
The Democratic critics — many of them representing the Congressional Hispanic Caucus (CHC), the Progressive Caucus, or both — are up in arms that they’ve been cut out of the Senate negotiations and furious that the emerging legislation appears to exclude key Democratic priorities. That list includes protections for asylum-seekers and a pathway to citizenship for undocumented immigrants already in the country, particularly a group of young people known as Dreamers.
A large and growing chorus of these Democrats are already warning that they’ll oppose the legislation if it does somehow reach the House floor, creating a potential messaging headache for Biden and other Democratic leaders who are casting advance blame on Republicans for blocking Congress’s best shot in years at a bipartisan border bill.
“Everything that I’ve heard that’s in this bill is going to set immigration reform — real comprehensive immigration reform — back 10 or 15 years,” said Rep. Nanette Barragán (D-Calif.), the head of the Hispanic Caucus.
...
The policy specifics are not the only source of contention. Liberals are also protesting the exclusion of Hispanic Caucus members at the negotiating table.
“It’s been a major problem, and I also think it’s going to pose a major obstacle to having the Hispanic Caucus approve any deal that’s coming out,” Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) said. “The problem is with the policy [and] the problem is with the process, in not having any CHC members deeply involved in this.”
Release of border text could be imminent. Schumer tees up a test vote next week. My report: https://t.co/6987gfQf26
— Chad Pergram (@ChadPergram) February 1, 2024
Senate inching closer on a border bill. Text possibly tomorrow or Sunday at the latest. https://t.co/axUmanV5Iv
— Chad Pergram (@ChadPergram) February 1, 2024
Join the conversation as a VIP Member