Democrats may schedule a vote “next week” on the still-secret plan to manage President Joe Biden’s profound illegal immigration, according to reports.
“[From] Inside the Senate GOP lunch — McConnell told Republican senators the Senate could vote on the border/Ukraine supplemental NEXT WEEK per three attendees,” said a Wednesday afternoon post on X from Andrew Desiderio at Punchbowl News.
GOP senators usually hold a weekly lunch on Wednesdays and discuss conflicting strategies and priorities. These are where the leadership sets the direction. Reporters wait outside the lunchroom to quiz the senators as they leave and to get authorized leaks from senators’ staffers.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) says he supports the draft border deal, in part because he wants the administration to fund Ukraine’s war against Russia with another $60 billion in weaponry and funds.
But the draft deal is not completed. “There are boundaries to the conversation around gun laws. There are almost no boundaries to the conversation around immigration & border law,” said Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT), one of the three primary negotiators. The GOP negotiator is Sen. James Lankford (R-OK), who is praised and reviled by rival groups.
So far, Biden’s deputies have welcomed at least five million illegal migrants over the southern border, in addition to the annual inflow of roughly 1.5 million legal immigrants and visa workers. Overall, Biden’s inflow has delivered roughly three migrants for every two American births.
Lankford is denouncing early leaks of the draft deal that Breitbart News published.
“There’s always rumors about what’s actually out there,” Lankford told a CNN producer on January 16.
No one’s seen the text. [House] Speaker [Mike] Johnson has been very clear that if this is the whole agreement, this is a major problem. And it’s clearly not. And there’s all kinds of things that are flying around the internet right now. And I just smile to people and say, there’s a basic principle of life that you don’t believe everything you read on the internet and get the facts.
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) is touting the draft deal — if the White House is willing to make unclear concessions on the so-called “parole pathway.”
Industry lobbyists are successfully pushing establishment media outlets to portray the dispute as a disagreement about how best to manage and employ the millions of economic migrants who show up at the border. For example, the pending deal would offer workers permits to migrants under the novel claim that they should work instead of getting taxpayer funds while they are waiting years for their legal claims to be decided by the courts.
In contrast, pro-American groups are emphasizing the enforcement of the nation’s existing border laws, such as the law requiring that migrants be detained until their legal claims are decided. The laws are designed to protect American families from unscrupulous investors who hire and rent homes to desperate illegal migrants instead of negotiating on fair terms with American families.
GOP leaders in the House oppose any deal that does not enact the H.R. 2 border stabilization bill.
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