The time for talking is over, the time for action is ‘long past due’: Sen. Sinema
Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, I-Ariz., joins ‘Special Report’ to discuss the hard-sell Senate border bill she co-wrote, saying there is ‘misunderstanding’ about it.
Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, I-Ariz., responded Monday to House Republican criticisms of the border legislation she co-authored.
Sinema, the Senate Homeland Security Subcommittee on Border Management chairwoman who crafted the bill with Sens. James Lankford, R-Okla., and Chris Murphy, D-Conn., told Fox News the section of the bill most critiqued by Republicans – the triggering of emergency authority to prohibit migrant entry if average encounters surpass 4,000 or 5,000 per day – has been subject to mischaracterizations.
"I think there's some real misunderstanding about this section of the law. The Border Emergency Authority is actually a really critical element," Sinema said on "Special Report."
Sinema said the bill is right to expand detention capabilities, given the estimated seven to 10-year Notice To Appear (NTA) timeframe for migrants ultimately released into the nation's interior.
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"That's obviously a horrible, horrible outcome. But that is what happens with the majority of illegal entrants right now. So we expand detention beds so that those individuals will go into detention, be processed and deported right away," she said.
"Not everyone can go into detention, though. Little kids who are here alone, families; we're not allowed to keep them in detention. And so, we create a new system for them where we keep them under supervision. And then we have a very short period of time in which we determine if their asylum claim is valid or not, and then deport them out of the country."
Sinema said the rapid removal authority described under the section targeted by House Republicans is intended as a backstop if the processing of illegal immigrants or asylum seekers becomes too much to handle under the increased detention capacity.
Several House Republicans, including Speaker Mike Johnson of Louisiana and GOP Conference Chairwoman Elise Stefanik of New York, have been heavily critical of the law. Johnson has declared it "dead on arrival."
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Stefanik recently said the bill "incentivize[s] thousands of illegals" to ingress into the United States.
However, Sinema took issue with comments from Johnson and others who believe President Biden has all the authority he needs to secure the border properly, given that he followed through on a high-profile promise to undo immigration measures brought about under the Trump administration.
Sinema said that while she has been at times critical of President Biden on the immigration issue, there are holes in Republicans' argument.
She said that, under current conditions, the Department of Homeland Security needs more detention beds and cannot act unilaterally without congressional approval. Sinema cited the current figure as 34,000 beds, and said the bill would increase that to 50,000.
Additionally, Sinema said the Senate bill ends catch-and-release seen under former Presidents Obama and Trump, and that it creates a new authority requiring entrants to be detained or supervised until their asylum case is resolved.
"The third thing that changes is that we've taken the asylum system and raised the initial bars so that people have to provide real proof when they get to the country's border, and they don't get to just come in like they have in the past," she added.
Sinema also cited the fact the judiciary has mooted Title 42, which allowed for more stringent border security measures for national health care concerns. She said the new bill would essentially create a legislative version of Title 42 that enshrines the authority in federal statute.
Sinema said she and Lankford, the top Republican negotiator, have been working on the border control issue for years and that they both are confident the bill will bring about much-needed reforms members of both parties are clamoring for.
House Republicans, meanwhile, have passed H.R. 2, the Secure the Border Act originally authored by Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart, R-Fla.
Senate Democrats have, however, characterized that bill as extreme and it continues to languish on Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer's, D-N.Y., desk.
In her interview on Fox News, Sinema also claimed her legislation furthers a border security improvement plan endorsed by Trump in August 2020, saying it will require both repair to and construction of "new elements of [border] wall."
"That's in the legislation because the reality is you've seen it yourself, Bret [Baier]. The cartels are just cutting holes in the border walls in Arizona and just letting thousands of people through -- down in Lukeville, Arizona. We have to have the ability to stop that."
For his part, Trump roundly condemned the legislation, saying that only "a fool or a radical left Democrat" would support it.
He said the bill is a "gift" to Democrats and a "death wish" for Republicans, predicting it would allow Democrats to "absolve them[selves]" of the border issue with its passage, in a recent TruthSocial post.
Trump also said any border bill should be standalone legislation and not tied to Ukraine aid or any other unrelated appropriation.