Senate border deal would allow 5,000 illegal immigrants a day

Talks have been going on for weeks and the plans have been tightly guarded by the negotiators, but Rosemary Jenks, government relations director at the Immigration Accountability Project, said she’s been briefed by multiple people familiar with the negotiations and has been sharing details online.

She said the current framework includes a right to government-funded lawyers for illegal immigrant children struggling through the immigration courts, and would also expand legal immigration, both priorities for President Biden.

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“I think we’d be lucky if it didn’t increase,” she told The Washington Times. “There’s nothing in this that I have seen or been told about that stops catch-and-release.”

Her version of the bill has scorched through conservative circles and activists are now rallying to demand the GOP back out of the talks. Their chief target is Sen. James Lankford, the Oklahoma lawmaker who is serving as Republicans’ lead negotiator.

The senator, in a statement to The Times, pleaded for patience, saying those attacking the deal haven’t seen the outlines.

“There are generational changes in border security laws that are included in the text being drafted. I would encourage everyone to read the bill when it comes out before they determine their opinion on something they have not even seen,” he said.

He also detailed the hurdles he’s facing in the talks.

“Stopping the massive flow of illegal immigration and creating new effective authorities for our law enforcement at the border are the priorities we are fighting the Biden White House and a Democratic-led Senate to change, which have both refused to even acknowledge the crisis on our southwest border,” he said.

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The White House has acknowledged the border chaos, but it has resisted major changes to its approach, insisting immigration is a global problem and the only answer is a total overhaul of the U.S. system.

At home, the White House has argued communities are being overwhelmed by the new illegal immigrants because those migrants aren’t able to legally work immediately. The ones who apply for asylum can obtain work permits 180 days after that step.

Ms. Jenks said the new plan would front-load the permits at the point migrants are caught and released.

She also blasted the 5,000-person trigger for when the new expulsion powers would kick in. She pointed back to Obama-era Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson’s statement that 1,000 illegal immigrants a day overwhelmed the system.

Ms. Jenks appeared on Steve Bannon’s “War Room” show on Thursday to talk about the emerging deal. Mr. Bannon, a former top advisor to President Trump, urged his audience to call Mr. Lankford and demand he scuttle the bill.

“This is an outrage, it’s a sellout of the American people,” he said. “They’re doing it behind closed doors. They’re going to try to jam it next week.”

Ms. Jenks’ revelations have irked GOP leaders in the Senate, but they’re enraging key Republicans in the House.

Rep. Chip Roy, Texas Republican, replied to a social media post from the Immigration Accountability Project detailing the provisions, by calling the deal “a JOKE of an offer.”

“Bottom line: WEAK security provisions in exchange for an open-borders wish list,” he said.

Rep. Bob Good, chairman of the House Freedom Caucus, simply replied: “No.”

Sen. Rand Paul, Kentucky Republican, derided the 5,000-person threshold in an appearance on Fox News on Tuesday.

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The biggest sticking point in negotiations had been Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas’s expansive use of “parole” to catch and release more than 1.5 million unauthorized migrants. According to Ms. Jenks, the new deal would block the use of parole for migrants caught sneaking in by the Border Patrol, but would still allow it for migrants who show up at airports and land border crossings.

That is the same as the current situation, she said.

Mr. Lankford briefed fellow senators on his progress on Wednesday.

Senators afterward confirmed to The Times that the deal is honing in on the 5,000 threshold for illegal immigrants allowed each day before the new expulsion authority would kick in. GOP senators told The Times that immediately issuing work permits to the catch-and-release population would be a non-starter for them.

Mr. Lankford also briefed members of the House’s Republican Study Committee, a group of conservatives. A spokeswoman for RSC Chairman Kevin Hern, Oklahoma Republican, didn’t respond to an inquiry for this report.

The Times also reached out to Homeland Security and the White House.

Whatever deal Mr. Lankford inks would have to make it through the Democrat-led Senate and the GOP-controlled House.

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He said he was “cautiously optimistic” about what he’d heard out of the negotiations, but had yet to see any text. He said the House position remains the stiff enforcement bill passed last year, which would restore the Trump-era “Remain in Mexico” program, reel in the expansive use of parole and build more border wall.

Mr. Hewitt told Mr. Johnson that without the wall, he wouldn’t lend his voice to support the deal, and he predicted that “the base will desert you and we will lose the majorities.”