https://townhall.com/tipsheet/...et&utm_source=slider

Sen Mike Lee:

Among the "disasters" enumerated by Lee: the legislation's provision that "codifies catch and release," "allows up to 1.8 million illegal aliens to enter before temporarily closing parts of the border," and "funds sanctuary cities and NGOs sending illegals around the country," including $2.3 billion for a "slush fund" for services related to unaccompanied illegal immigrant children. As sub-points, Lee calls out the loopholes that are all but certain to be abused by the Biden administration, the limited duration of the emergency authority to shut down the border, and the presidential discretion that would allow Biden to reopen the border at any time he deems it to be in the "national interest" to suspend the emergency authority.

What's more, Lee points out that the Senate bill also "subsidizes free, taxpayer-funded legal counsel to illegal aliens" and further "expands parole instead of limiting it," allowing the Biden administration to continue abusing it and offer parole for an "urgent humanitarian reason" selected by DHS Secretary Mayorkas.

Lee's list also includes the bill's provision to "increase green cards by 50,000 per year for five years" — including 32,000 family-based green cards and 18,000 employment-based green cards — something that "[h]urts American workers by importing cheap foreign labor" in addition to work permits for adult children of H1-B visa holders, thereby establishing "indefinite work permits" for "an estimated 250,000 adult children of H-1B nonimmigrant visa holders who will be competing for jobs with recent college graduates." The Senate bill's inclusion of "immediate work permits to every legal released from custody after they pass an initial screening" was also singled out by Lee.

That screening itself is also being weakened, another aspect of the legislation that made the Utah Republicans list, by codifying Biden's "asylum officer regulation" which allows USCIS asylum officers to grant asylum "without review by an Immigration Judge, ensuring significantly higher approval rates."

While these are largely new or expanded provisions, what's missing from the border bill also drew Lee's attention and ire. Notably, there's "nothing to deport illegals" in the legislation, nor is there any "immediate funding for the wall" and instead current money would be rescinded and reallocated to a later fiscal year "so that President Biden and Sec. Mayorkas don't have to build any wall and can delay spending money on the border wall."

Rounding out Lee's "dirty dozen" list is the bill's creation of a "pathway to citizenship for over 60,000 poorly vetted Afghans who were brought to the country due to President Biden's disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan."

Beyond a Hot Mess – McConnell Retreats from Support of Border Deal, Lankford May Vote Against His Own Legislation

Exactly how bad is the “bipartisan” legislation, which should be called, ‘the border insecurity in exchange for Ukraine money act’? The bill is so bad, and makes things so much worse, that James Lankford may end up voting against his own legislative creation.

Making matters worse, Mitch McConnell is now pretending the entire fiasco wasn’t his idea, further leaving James Lankford out to dry on his own.

(Politico) – […] Several members of GOP leadership came out against the legislation in the past 24 hours, further boxing in Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell. The Kentucky Republican, who supports the agreement linking border policy changes with aid to Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan, called Monday’s meeting an “interesting discussion.”

Inside the room, McConnell told Republicans that if they didn’t like the direction that the bill is going, they should vote against moving forward this week, according to two people briefed on the meeting who were granted anonymity to speak candidly.

According to two attendees, McConnell did not forcefully whip for or against the bill. He instead discussed the specific policies and politics of the legislation, which is opposed by Speaker Mike Johnson and former President Donald Trump.

Sen. James Lankford (R-Okla.), who struck the deal, even suggested he might vote against moving forward if his colleagues weren’t ready to move.“That’s not voting against the bill,” Lankford said of voting to filibuster the bill from coming to the floor. “So that’s not the final passage. That’s the beginning point.” (read more)

https://theconservativetreehou...his-own-legislation/

Leave it to Eyepatch McCain.

quote:

Eyepatch McCain

Any other time this would be funny.

It seems the Border Patrol Union and its leader Brandon Judd have endorsed the bill so far, which somewhat surprised me as he seemed like a level headed guy. I've heard, but have not verified for myself, that the new bill included increased pay for CBP. Anyone seen that?

I guess I'm off to read the bill to verify those claims.

I posted this in the Biden thread, but it probably more appropriately belongs here.

Biden: "Every day between now and November, the American people are going to know that the only reason the border is not secure is Donald Trump."

https://twitter.com/TPostMille...7TfxYEvTj1k9LFg&s=19

https://www.breitbart.com/poli...ld-passes-committee/

President Joe Biden says a bill from Sens. James Lankford (R-OK), Chris Murphy (D-CT), and Kyrsten Sinema (I-AZ) is merely a precursor to ramming amnesty for millions of illegal aliens through Congress.

During an address at the White House on Tuesday, Biden praised the Senate bill that would expand overall immigration to the United States by codifying his parole pipeline that has freed hundreds of thousands of border crossers into the nation’s interior.

The bill would also increase legal immigration to the U.S., even as Biden has driven the nation’s foreign-born population to nearly 50 million — the largest ever in American history.

Biden suggested that the bill, however, is merely a stepping stone to Democrats’ and the business lobby’s ultimate goal: Amnesty for most of the 11 to 22 million illegal aliens residing in the U.S.

“[The bill] doesn’t address everything I wanted. For example, we still need to pass documentation for people that are already here,”

Biden said Congress ought “to pass this bill and get it to my desk immediately.”

For decades, Democrats and corporate special interests tied to Wall Street have sought to ram an amnesty for millions of illegal aliens through Congress.

An amnesty would deplete the cost of labor by inflating the workforce with millions of newly legalized foreign workers for hire — lowering wages for America’s working and middle class while cutting costs for businesses, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) has previously found.

“Immigration has exerted downward pressure on the wages of relatively low-skilled workers who are already in the country, regardless of their birthplace,” the CBO found in 2020.

Likewise, an amnesty would drive up housing demand, further inflating home prices for working and middle class Americans who have grappled with sky-high interest rates.

In 2013, a study by the Michael Bloomberg-funded New American Economy, which promotes amnesty, explained how the importing of tens of millions of immigrants over decades had helped raise housing costs by $3.7 trillion for the next generation of homebuyers but spun the figure as the creation of “housing wealth.”

JUST IN: McConnell Retreats, Says Senate Border Deal is Dead on Arrival

By Cristina Laila | Feb. 6, 2024 6:40 pm

Earlier Tuesday it was reported Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) recommended a “NO” vote on cloture on the motion to proceed with the $118 billion border security bill.

“McConnell recommended to GOP senators behind closed doors that they BLOCK the border bill on Wednesday, per multiple sources, bc it’s clear that most Republicans are preparing to vote no — either because they oppose the bill or want more time,” according to Punchbowl News reporter Andrew Desiderio.

“McConnell explicitly recommended a NO vote on cloture on the motion to proceed, according to several attendees. McConnell said the problem isn’t what Lankford negotiated, it’s that the political mood in the country has changed,” he added.

The Senate’s $118.28 billion national security supplemental package allocates $60 billion in military aid to Ukraine.

Only $20.23 billion was allocated to secure the US border amid an unprecedented invasion of military-age males from Africa, the Middle East, Latin America, and China.

McConnell was on board with this bill until he wasn’t.

Rather than admitting the border security bill is flawed, McConnell said he had a change of tune because the ‘political mood in the country has changed.’

McConnell told reporters

“Most of our members feel that we’re not going to be able to make a law here,” McConnell told reporters on Tuesday.

https://twitter.com/i/status/1754953031341518911

Best news I've heard all day Q.

and they gave Myorkas a free pass...

bastards

McConnell and Schumer hate it when the American people can find out what is in a bill before it is voted on.

quote:

Originally posted by stoic-one:
It seems the Border Patrol Union and its leader Brandon Judd have endorsed the bill so far, which somewhat surprised me as he seemed like a level headed guy. I've heard, but have not verified for myself, that the new bill included increased pay for CBP. Anyone seen that?

I guess I'm off to read the bill to verify those claims.

Dont hold it against them. Those guys are treading water in a hurricane and Biden been loading them up with bricks.

A first-hand account from the Darien Gap is chilling. Check out Bret Weinstein's Darkhorse podcast from Feb 1 called "Trojan Migration". It is on multiple platforms.

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/...1521?i=1000643721107

Bret, his son, and Chris Martensen went to migrant camps deep in the jungle in Panama. The short version is they saw 2 distinct migrations. One is the mass of economic refugees, mostly from south America but also from all over the world. Families, individuals, all from rough situations seeking a better life. All experiencing terrible abuse on their trek.

The second group was a separate camp of Chinese. Almost entirely military age males. No children. The camp was organized. Lots of buses lined up to transport them. They are traveling separate from the others until further north.

Bret describes it as appearing to be a military invasion using the cover of the other large economic migrant group.

This from a Cowboy State Daily article that says Wyoming senators, Barraso and Lummis are “adamantly against a $118 billion immigration bill that could allow 5,000 illegal migrants per day in the U.S., and would funnel billions into Ukraine, Gaza and other war zones.”

quote:

Some Republicans called the bill’s many exceptions “loopholes.”

The bill also would require the secretary to suspend any border emergency once migrant encounters dropped to less than 75% of what they were when he declared the emergency.

Biden would have the power to immediately suspend these border emergencies for up to 45 days at any time.

CSD Link

https://dailycaller.com/2024/0...e-ted-cruz-mike-lee/

McConnell put Oklahoma Republican Sen. James Lankford in charge of border deal negotiations with Democrats and the Biden administration. Every Senate Republican the Caller spoke with laid the blame on McConnell, however, saying he was the one truly crafting the deal behind the scenes and used Lankford, who is not running for reelection, as a pawn to take the fall for what the lawmakers said is a gift to their opponents.

“Every single Democrat candidate in the country running for Senate, running for House will use the identical talking points — they will all say: We wanted to secure the border. We tried to secure the border, but the Republicans wouldn’t let us,” Cruz continued. “Now, that is a wild-eyed lie. It is completely false. This bill would have made the border crisis worse.”

“As long as I’ve been serving in the Senate, there’s never been an issue where the American public is so overwhelmingly in support of our position, which is to secure the border. So how can you take as leader, how do you take an issue where the American people support us and lead us into a box, where now, when a bill is produced, it is worse than doing nothing,” Republican Wisconsin Sen. Ron Johnson said. “When that’s rejected, we get blamed. I mean, you got to work overtime to screw that up.”

“I’ve even heard privately, Democratic colleagues, tell me ‘your leadership was desperate to make a deal, that it made us less willing to negotiate’. So this is an open secret that these guys were not driving a hard bargain and you see the results in the border package that came out,” Republican Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance told the Daily Caller. “And now we’re seeing the second step of the process, which is kill the border package. Jam through the Ukraine package. It doesn’t make any sense.”

Availability of state support programs appear to be greatly affected by all the migrants arriving these past few years.

One data point from Iowa: Calling to see what state programs might be available to help a young mom with two preschooler completely abandoned by her husband, comments from various county and state officials were enlightening.

"There is no section 8 housing available. That's all been filled up by migrants since covid. There is a homeless shelter in Des Moines for woman and children that occasionally have beds available."

"There's no rent or childcare funding available as well. All that was quickly used up and there's a waiting list of several hundred people. If she (the mom) has any income at all, there's no point applying as hundreds on the waiting list all have zero income and come first."

She was able to apply for food stamps for the preschoolers, but that's it. For any young mom abandoned by some husband, they are on their own in Iowa.