The House of Representatives approved a far-reaching immigration bill on May 11 that seeks to bolster the wall along the U.S.–Mexico border and impose stricter regulations on asylum-seekers, at a time when migrants are congregating along the border ahead of the lifting of the COVID-19 pandemic restrictions.
The legislation, called the Secure the Border Act (H.R.2), would restore many of the policies implemented by former President Donald Trump, such as resuming construction of the border walls. It would also restrict asylum by mandating that migrants cross legally, pay a $50 fee, and meet more stringent standards to demonstrate that they’re fleeing political, religious, or racial persecution. It also seeks to increase the number of Border Patrol agents.
“The key component of this bill is where we say, ‘If you come to our country, you will get to, according to the law, file your asylum claim ... but you will be detained or you will be returned while your claim is adjudicated,’” House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) said during debate on the bill.
“Asylum is not an open invitation to bum rush our borders. But the Democrats have made it precisely that,” said Rep. Tom McClintock (R-Ohio), chairman of the House Judiciary’s subcommittee on immigration, security, and enforcement.
The House voted 219–213 to approve the measure, with no Democrats in favor and two Republicans opposed. The legislation has little chance of becoming law, since Democrats, who hold a narrow majority in the Senate, reject the measure’s “cruel” and “anti-immigrant” provisions. President Joe Biden has also pledged to veto it.
The vote came hours before the midnight lifting of Title 42, a rule implemented in response to the COVID-19 public health emergency that permitted border authorities to expeditiously return numerous migrants who crossed the border unlawfully. Biden has conceded that the U.S.–Mexico border area will experience disorder as migrants weigh whether to cross and U.S. officials use a new set of policies aimed at curbing illegal immigration while creating more legal pathways.
Republicans blame the Biden administration for the surge in illegal immigration. Passing the bill allows House Republican lawmakers to claim that they’ve fulfilled their pledge to secure the border.
“Republicans have solutions,” House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) told reporters on May 10, expressing confidence that the Republican Party could pass the legislation through the narrowly divided House on a party-line vote.
“This is President Biden’s record on the border: record crossings, record carelessness, record chaos.”
The speaker departed his address to high-fives from a few Republican lawmakers present, including Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.).
Democrats deemed the policies “inhumane.”
“My Republican colleagues are trying to take us back to the failed, illegal, and immoral policies of the Trump administration,” said Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.), the senior Democrat on the Judiciary panel, on the House floor.
“This bill serves as a wholesale ban on asylum. No one would be able to seek asylum in the United States if they cross between ports of entry or if they had or could have had even temporary status in a third country.”
Republicans have been working for months to bring the bill to the House floor, amid public disputes among Republican lawmakers over the legislation.
The 213-page bill is a compromise in the Republican caucus between mainstream lawmakers, who desired to strengthen border enforcement, and hardline conservatives, who wanted to see drastic changes to U.S. asylum and immigration laws.
As the bill approached its final form on May 1o, it had to be revised to appease concerns from members of the House Freedom Caucus and other lawmakers. They were concerned about the consequences of granting the Department of Homeland Security the power to label cartels as foreign terrorist organizations, as well as whether a separate provision requiring agricultural companies to check the immigration status of workers would disrupt them.
