The White House is pushing Republicans to pass a border security bill, touting its implications for the crisis at the border between the United States and Mexico.
The legislation, which is said to have bipartisan support in Congress and will likely come before lawmakers on May 23, has been touted as an agreement that has made significant policy changes and offered additional resources and personnel to secure the border.
In addition to measures that would help government agencies deal with the influx of illegal immigrants, the White House has pointed to the focus on fentanyl trafficking in the bill.
The bill, which is expected to come before the Senate in a matter of days, includes provisions to stop accepting asylum claims at the border when the influx of illegal immigrants exceeds the capacity of government agencies to safely and efficiently process them.
White House officials have called on Congress to take up the legislation, saying it will offer more support to those dealing with illegal immigrants. Included in the bill is an allowance to increase Customs and Border Protection by 1,500 new agents and Immigration and Customs Protection by 1,200 new agents.
The bill would also allocate resources for 100 additional machines to scan for prohibited items, such as fentanyl, being brought across the southern border into the United States.
White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre addressed the legislation during a May 22 press conference, encouraging Republicans to pass it, saying, “Time and time again, the American people have shown that they do not want mass raids, family separation, or kids in cages. They want a secure border and lawful immigration opportunities for those seeking to come to America to enrich our country.”
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) promised to bring the border bill up for a vote and called the hesitation on the part of some Republicans a politically motivated move.
“Congressional Republicans and Democrats alike were prepared to join arms and act to secure our nation’s border as part of the national security supplemental,” Mr. Schumer wrote in a letter to colleagues on May 19, saying the “Democrats’ commitment to act never waned.”
In a May 22 post on the social media platform X, the Senate leader referenced previous attempts to pass border security legislation, saying, “It’s been 105 days since Donald Trump and the Republicans blocked the strongest, most comprehensive border security bill in a generation. And they still don’t have any plan except exploiting the border for Trump’s political gain.”
The issue of border security is one expected to be at the forefront of the 2024 election cycle, in which both houses of Congress have thin majorities.
Rep. Burgess Owens (R-Utah) addressed that possibility, saying that Democrats “can try” to take up border security as a campaign tool but that President Biden’s job is to secure the border via executive orders.
The lawmaker also asserted that it “eviscerates [the] power of future presidents to secure [the] border by establishing a new MINIMUM number of illegal immigrants who must be admitted each day,” and it would make “invasion level migration permanent.”
