Exclusive — Beth Van Duyne: ‘Disgrace’ Senate Bill Essentially Pays Illegal Aliens to Cross Southern Border

Rep. Beth Van Duyne (R-TX) says legislation negotiated by Sens. James Lankford (R-OK), Chris Murphy (D-CT), and Kyrsten Sinema (I-AZ) is a “disgrace” that essentially would pay illegal aliens to cross the United States-Mexico border by funneling billions to non-governmental organizations (NGOs) to help them resettle in American communities.

In an exclusive interview with SiriusXM Patriot’s Breitbart News Daily, Van Duyne said the Senate bill is “dead on arrival” in the House as it attempts to normalize illegal immigration to the U.S. while throwing billions at NGOs to resettle new arrivals.

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“What they are doing is opening up and normalizing now more than two million illegal immigrants entering our country every year,” Van Duyne said. “They’re normalizing this.”

“By giving work permits to people who are here illegally, they are now incentivizing it. They are giving billions of dollars to NGOs, basically writing checks to people to come over our borders illegally,” Van Duyne continued.

Specifically, the bill provides $1.4 billion for the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s (FEMA) Shelter and Services Program (SSP) and $2.3 billion for the Department of Health and Human Services’s (HHS) Refugee Entrant and Assistance program.

Both federal programs are boondoggles for NGOs helping the federal government facilitate illegal immigration.

As Breitbart News reported in 2023, groups like Catholic Charities, United Way, and the Salvation Army have been rewarded with hundreds of millions in taxpayer dollars under President Joe Biden through SSP grants alone to funnel illegal aliens into American communities.

“It’s a disgrace,” Van Duyne said.

In addition, the bill would provide unaccompanied alien children (UACs) with taxpayer-funded lawyers to fight their deportations from the U.S. Also, adult illegal aliens who are considered mentally “incompetent” would be provided free taxpayer-funded lawyers.

Van Duyne said these provisions are only the start of “so many terrible things in this bill.”

For example, the bill allows more than 150,000 border crossers and illegal aliens to cross the southern border before the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) can use authorities to more easily return new arrivals to Mexico.

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Randy Clark/Breitbart Texas

Even when those authorities are invoked, at the discretion of DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, the agency would still be required to process thousands of border crossers and illegal aliens into the U.S. interior every few days.

“They’re also looking at work permits, not only for people who are coming here illegally but also with visas, their children,” Van Duyne said. “If you don’t think that’s creating a massive sucking sound, a vacuum for people to come to our border, you’re fooling yourself.”

“It is giving a ton more … discretion now to Mayorkas, who is going to have articles of impeachment [against him],” Van Duyne continued. “We’re looking at an impeached secretary; this would expand his powers.”

Van Duyne also warned that the bill would actually curtail the broad powers over immigration that the president currently holds — a move that Democrats would hope to use against former President Donald Trump should he reenter the White House.

“The scary thing is, not only is this allowing Mayorkas much more ability … this sets a precedent. So future administrations are now going to be limited to what they can do once you set this into law,” Van Duyne said. “So before, where you had a president like President Trump where they had … the Remain in Mexico program … you’re potentially preventing them from doing that in the future.”

Congress, Van Duyne said, does not need to allocate any additional funding to the DHS for the agency to stem the flow of illegal immigration thanks to the executive branch’s broad powers over immigration and borders.

“[Biden] doesn’t need a brand new law; he just needs to enforce the current laws on the books. And he doesn’t need more money to do it,” she continued. “What they want to do is hire more people so they can process people more quickly into our country illegally. That is a problem.”

“The idea that we need more money, they only need more money because they want to give more money away and buy plane tickets … they want to get them quickly expedited into our country, and that is causing more people to want to come to our country illegally,” Van Duyne said. “You are benefiting them and incentivizing them to come to our country. You’re giving them jobs, you’re giving them healthcare, you’re giving them education, you’re now providing a pathway for their children when they come to get jobs immediately.”

The bill, Van Duyne said, is “dead on arrival in the House” though some House Republicans, like Rep. Dan Crenshaw (R-TX), have sought to prop the bill up and claim Republican lawmakers are making “completely false statements about the legislation.”

“When you look at what this bill does to open our borders, to normalize these catastrophic numbers, this is a hill I am willing to die on,” Van Duyne said.

Breitbart News Daily airs weekdays on SiriusXM Patriot 125 from 6:00 a.m. to 9:00 a.m. Eastern.

John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Email him at jbinder@breitbart.com. Follow him on Twitter here.