Both the House and Senate this week were engaged in an intense game of political chess. The Senate was tied up with the grassroots defeating a Ukraine, Israel, and Taiwan supplemental including terrible immigration language while the House struggled to get enough votes for two major bills. However, in some cases this week, not getting some bills across the finish line is a win for conservatives.
On Sunday night, the immigration bill drafted by Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Senator James Lankford (R-OK) was released. As Eagle Forum and like-minded organizations dug into the text, it was worse than we imagined. Together, we sent out alerts and coalesced around a letter to Senators warning them of these dangerous policies.
As previously reported, the bill would require the President and Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas to “shut down” the border if border encounters averaged 5,000 illegals per day over 7 days. However, they are still required to process 1,400 inadmissible aliens daily under the border “pause”. Even if the President was forced to invoke this so-called closure, the text gives the President the authority to keep the border open if he feels it’s in the “nation’s best interest”. Current federal law allows for the President to shut down the border right now, yet the words written in this bill imply that 4,999 immigrants per day is an acceptable amount to enter our borders illegally.
Perhaps one of the most egregious measures in the legislation is that it does nothing to stop the trafficking of children across the border. Nearly 119,000 unaccompanied children (UACs) entered the United States last year, many of whose parents were desperate enough to pay off cartel members for this transportation. Under this bill, UACs are not subject to removal or deportation laws nor are they counted as part of the daily total if they come from countries other than Mexico. Many of these children are coming without identification, so anyone in the U.S. can claim to be a relative. Such a process allows trafficking in children to continue unabated.
Other provisions would codify catch-and-release procedures as well as parole which has never been written into law previously. Work visas would be handed out immediately to any alien claiming asylum while $1.4 billion would be funneled to non-governmental organizations (NGOs) that have been known to coach illegal immigrants on what to say at the border and how to request numerous benefits. While too many communities are being ravished by illegal drugs and crime, especially sanctuary cities, neither of those issues are addressed. In fact, millions of dollars are allocated to these areas.
Eagle Forum and other groups revealed the details of this bill and the grassroots were quick to respond. Senators’ voicemails and inboxes were full of messages in opposition. Before long, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) was forced to concede that the bill was going nowhere. In closed-door meetings, GOP Senators objected to not only the inadequate policies but also the short three-day period given to review such a complex and lengthy bill. To add fuel to the fire, House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) and Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-LA) announced the bill would be dead-on-arrival in the House.
When the immigration + foreign aid bill failed to get enough votes in the Senate, Sen. Schumer decided to strip off the immigration language and move the foreign aid portion alone. This includes $60 billion in aid to Ukraine despite recent reports that Ukrainian government officials siphoned off $40 million of previously allocated aid money into their personal accounts. Senate Republicans already vowed that they would not vote for any supplemental aid to Ukraine without securing our border first. Eagle Forum sent a letter to Senators encouraging them not to give up the fight on immigration and to resist all efforts to move a foreign aid-only supplemental until the Administration is forced to take real action to address the border crisis.
Meanwhile, in the House, Speaker Johnson attempted to pass another bill that would give Israel $17 billion to help their defense against Hamas. Last November, the House passed a bill that would give $14.3 billion to Israel and was paid for by cutting funds from the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). But Sen. Schumer refused to bring up that aid package in the Senate, even though it received bipartisan support. The new version, the Israel Security Supplemental Appropriations Act (H.R. 7217), contained no offsets, yet Democrats still voted against it. The bill was narrowly defeated by a vote of 250-180 lacking the two-thirds majority needed (it was considered under suspension of the rules.) The Speaker has vowed to bring it to a vote again.
On the same day, the House held a vote on the articles of impeachment for Homeland Security Secretary/Senate immigration-deal collaborator Alejandro Mayorkas. The two counts against him were “willful and systemic refusal to comply with the law” and “breach of public trust.” It just takes one look at the border to know these allegations are legitimate. Unfortunately, a few Republicans voted with the Democrats, defeating the articles. The final vote count was 214-216.
While the House votes were disappointing this week, we are grateful that many of our GOP Senators listened to YOU and rejected the bad border deal. The Senate adjourned for the evening on Wednesday unsure of the next steps on the foreign aid bill as well as border security measures. We encourage you to follow us on Twitter/X (@eagleforum) for the latest updates on this and other issues. Together, we are making a difference!