Democrats want to flip the script on immigration. Immigration and border security is a top issue for voters this cycle.
President Biden is desperate to win re-election in November. So far, that isn’t looking good for him. Even with politicizing the DOJ against his political opponents, specifically Donald Trump, public opinion is against him. Biden’s approval is underwater in the polls on the top issues. Trump leads by double digits, especially on immigration, border security, and the economy.
Democrats are planning to take the issue of immigration and turn it back on Republicans. The plan is to trash Republicans who voted against the so-called border security legislation brought forward by Republican Senator James Lankford and two Democrats, Senator Chris Murphy and Kyrsten Sinema. Senate Democrats will try to convince voters that Republicans call the open border an emergency but will not vote to do anything about it.
Conservatives objected to the Senate bill on the border mainly because it allowed for up to 5,000 illegal immigrants a day to cross the border before the border would be closed. The goal of any illegal immigration bill should be zero illegal immigrants, not 5,000 per day.
Democrats plan to call up various pieces of legislation and try to pass them by a process known as unanimous consent. That would mean a single senator can object.
The White House held a meeting last week with key administration officials and Democrat lawmakers. The discussion centered around moving forward by forcing Republicans to vote on legislation they oppose. Potential executive actions were also discussed.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries of New York attended the meeting, which covered other topics but focused largely on immigration, the sources said.
He blamed Republicans and former President Donald Trump for the deal’s falling apart and said: “Republicans need to get serious about fixing the border and ignore Donald Trump. After all, you can’t say it’s an emergency and then refuse to take action.”
When did Democrats make clear that the situation at the border is unacceptable? There has been silence from most Democrats since the Biden border crisis began. I’m old enough to remember being told that silence is complicity. The only Democrat who has consistently spoken against the open southern border is Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-TX) who represents a border district. He is also the only pro-life Democrat in the House. There has not been support for border security among Senate Democrats.
Some advocates are worried that the new policy would be too restrictive on asylum, said two immigration advocacy leaders who spoke on the condition of anonymity.
A Department of Homeland Security official with knowledge of the discussions said the White House would most likely invoke power reserved for the president in Section 212(f) of the Immigration and Nationality Act, which allows a president discretion over who is admitted into the U.S.
Using that authority, Customs and Border Protection would be directed to block the entry of migrants crossing over from Mexico if daily border crossings passed a certain threshold. The tactic is similar to a provision of the bipartisan border security bill from February.
A former DHS official and an immigration advocate pointed out that advocacy groups are likely to argue in court that 212(f) does not give the president the authority to shut down the border. But the former DHS official said that even if the Biden administration is enjoined, invoking 212(f) would show a willingness to try to take control of the border, an area in which President Joe Biden is struggling ahead of his re-election battle against Trump.
No one who has paid attention to the open southern border would believe that Democrats are interested in closing the border, or at least getting it under reasonable control. Biden delegated the southern border to Kamala Harris and she has taken only two brief visits to the El Paso area when it was not in the middle of the crisis. She shows up for quick photo ops with Border Patrol agents and city officials. Then she’s off, flying out of town. Biden has made two trips to the border where both spots were sanitized for him. Again, it was just photo ops and greeting local officials.
This is not a serious administration. Everything is decided by looking at what is best in a political lens. The Democrats have decided to try to convince voters that they are serious about border security in the eleventh hour because the issue is toxic for them. Democrats want to take back the House and keep the Senate and White House.
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