Laura Ingraham Rips McCaul Border Bill

Nationally syndicated radio host Laura Ingraham lit into an immigration proposal from House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Michael McCaul (R-TX) Monday, saying it would actually weaken border security.

The proposal, which a group of lawmakers appointed by Speaker John Boehner have included in forthcoming recommendations to the GOP conference, is becoming a flash point in the intra-Republican debate over how to address tens of thousands of illegal alien children streaming across the border.

“Do not fall for the so-called Republican solutions to this current invasion in the southwest of Texas. Don’t fall for it,” Ingraham warned her listeners.

“Right now, under current law, the Border Patrol, by the way, is required to have ‘operational control’ of our border… the McCaul bill brings the ‘operational control’ requirement down to 90 percent. So you go from 100 percent down to 90, great,” Ingraham said.

“They basically say if DHS fails to get up to 90 percent ‘effectiveness’ in controlling the border, the only thing that DHS needs to do… is to send a letter to Congress explaining why it has failed. That’s it,” she added.

Ingraham also criticized an immigration bill from Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX), the senate minority whip, which he cointroduced with Rep. Henry Cueller (D-TX). The Cornyn proposal amends a 2008 human trafficking law to remove hurdles to deporting illegal alien children from Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador–the three countries from which most of the unaccompanied children have originated.

But critics have seized on language that appears to provide new legal avenues for the children to launch appeals.

“Section 103 of the Cornyn bill allows any unaccompanied minor who came in after 2012 to go before an immigration judge, even if the minor has already been issued an order of removal,” Ingraham said, adding:

That’s in the Cornyn bill. Also, it asks the judge to expunge the order of removal and re-litigate it. This is going to take forever, this Cornyn bill. All the requirements under this–it gives the illegals a second chance for amnesty, in other words. This is absurd. The whole purpose of the bill is getting rid of the backlog, but Cornyn’s bill–by adding on all of these requirements–actually adds to the backlog.

Ingraham warned that either the House bill, or Cornyn’s bill, could be used as “a vehicle to promote the ultimate Senate Gang of Eight bill” via a conference committee.

Update: A Homeland Security aide contacted Breitbart News to respond to Ingraham, saying “Our bill requires not less than 90% operational control within 2 years with an aspirational goal of 100%. Right now in the best sector DHS is stopping 47% because we’ve been throwing money aimlessly with no strategy. We are holding them accountable for every dollar they spend.”

The aide also touted the bill’s provisions regarding setting metrics to measure whether the border is secure. “Until now, any president could blur the lines and declare the border is secure because we’ve had no valid measuring stick.  The metrics, and the oversight of border sheriffs, border governors and a third-party independent verification, will finally provide “proof” of what’s really happening. With that proof, we can hold any administration’s feet to the fire,” the aide said.

The aide also said the McCaul bill “does not address immigration reform or amnesty and cannot automatically trigger a conference committee with the Senate.”