Kirby addresses Biden’s handling of border crisis: There’s no lack of urgency
NSC strategic communications coordinator John Kirby comments on the immigration crisis and weighs what impact the border crisis may have on 2024.
A border proposal still being hammered out by Senate negotiators would include a Title 42-type authority that would only be mandated if numbers at the southern border exceeded 5,000 migrant encounters a day -- part of a package already drawing fierce criticism from some conservatives in the chamber, with one GOP lawmaker branding it a "stinking pile of crap."
Talks have been ongoing for months as lawmakers have tried to find a deal over a fix to the southern border as part of talks for supplemental spending that includes aid to Ukraine and Israel. The Biden administration is seeking over $100 billion in funding, including $14 billion for the border. But Republicans have demanded limits on migrant releases into the interior, including the use of parole, and negotiators have been attempting to find a compromise.
Multiple sources familiar with the proposal tell Fox News Digital that the proposal would tighten the language of the initial credible fear standard for asylum screenings. One source said that those briefing lawmakers had predicted it could lead to the majority of migrants going through the screenings being removed.
Linked to that would be a Title 42-style expulsion authority to quickly remove migrants at the border similar to the COVID-19-era authority. Multiple sources said that the use of that authority would be mandated only if there was a 7-day rolling average of above 5,000 encounters a day.
Migrants who crossed the Rio Grande and entered the U.S. from Mexico are lined up for processing by U.S. Customs and Border Protection, Sept. 23, 2023, in Eagle Pass, Texas. (AP Photo/Eric Gay, File)
Daily encounters between 4,000 and 5,000 would allow for discretionary expulsions, and any single day where there were over 8,000 encounters, expulsions would be mandated even if the 7-day average was lower. Those expulsions would also be exempted from judicial review.
The use of humanitarian parole at the border by the administration would also be restricted, but migrants could still be paroled in if they cite humanitarian reasons. Those restrictions are not expected to include parole programs in which migrants are flown in, such as those for Afghans and Ukrainians, as well as the Cuban Haitian, Nicaraguan and Venezuelan (CHNV) parole program -- which allows 30,000 migrants to fly in to be paroled each month, as part of the administration’s "expanded lawful pathways."
One source familiar with the proposal said that the time asylum seekers would need to wait for a work permit would be cut from 180 days to 90 in some cases. Also expected to be in the bill is a proposal to grant work permits to children of legal temporary visa holders, including H-1B workers, who turn 21 while in the country. Those foreign nationals have been dubbed "Documented Dreamers" by activists, and it could affect up to a quarter of a million people.
Other additions include an increase in ICE detention beds to 55,000, as well as funding for facilities and additional border officers -- something the Biden administration has requested -- as well as legal assistance to unaccompanied children in the country.
While the provisions of the bill are still fluid, negotiators have said they are hoping to have a bill text soon -- indicating that the provisions, while fluid, are close to being solid. Similar provisions were reported earlier this month, and Sen. James Lankford, R-Okla.,one of the negotiators, urged caution about believing those reports.
"I encourage people to read the border security bill before they judge the border security bill. I also advise people not to believe everything you read on the internet….," he said.
The proposal, even if it were to pass the Senate, would likely hit a buzzsaw of opposition in the House -- where the Republican majority has said it wants the inclusion of the entirety of the House border security bill passed last year as part of any supplemental spending bill. It also would face considerable opposition in the Senate. A source close to negotiations told Fox News Digital they believed it would make the crisis worse.
"This expensive, back room deal is packed full of quotas making the crisis a norm, quasi-amnesty provisions, and billions of dollars for corrupt NGOs and sanctuary cities—all of which will fuel the invasion at our border, not stop the flow," they said. "Senate offices are quickly realizing the parole and asylum provisions aren’t just window dressing reforms, but will make things worse now and in the future."
On Tuesday, a sign of the anger over the potential deal was on display in public when a group of Senate conservatives tore into the proposals in no uncertain terms, while expressing anger that they didn’t have the full text of the bill yet.
"[This bill] is a kamikaze plane in a box canyon with no exits headed for a train wreck," Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas said at a press conference, later calling it a "stinking pile of crap bill."
Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, is seen during votes in the U.S. Capitol on Tuesday, December 5, 2023. (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images) (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)
"This bill is not designed to fix the problem. This bill normalizes 5,000 people a day coming in," he said. "5,000 people a day is over 1.8 million a year. That's called an invasion by the way. Under Joe Biden we've had 9.6 million. So the great Republican compromise is we’re for two thirds of Joe Biden's open borders. We'll let in 6 million instead of 9 million."
He predicted it would have a 0% chance of passing the House.
"This bill represents Senate Republican leadership waging war on House Republican leadership. It's not designed to secure the border and it won't secure the border," he said.
Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., expressed concern about tying the hands of a future Republican president, and the risk of allowing up to 5,000 people a day into the country.
"The thing is, we're hopefully going to have a new president. When we get a new Republican president, we should make sure we don't pass a bill that's going to impact their ability to secure the border. [Former President] Trump was able to secure the border with the existing laws. Let's make sure we don't pass something that makes it harder for him to do that.
Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., shared similar concerns.
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"Part of my problem with the 4,000 threshold that's discretionary and then the 5,000 mandatory shutting down the border -- my first question is how are you going to do that? Do you have the personnel to actually shut down the border? And do you contemplate that hasn't been answered, but the 4,000 discretionary level, is that going to hinder the next president?" he said.
Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, said lawmakers must be given time to read and process the bill.
"If they can have access to what they're doing for four months. Three weeks is not too much to ask," he said.
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