The Senate on Sunday unveiled details of its long-awaited border bill, and one of the main provisions is that as many as 8,500 illegal immigrants could be allowed to enter the U.S. in one day.
While senators who led the charge for this bill have touted certain triggers that would automatically close the border based on how many encounters Border Patrol agents have with migrants, those levels are quite high.
According to the bill, the border would effectively be closed automatically if certain triggers are tripped. That happens, though, only if the number of migrant encounters reaches 8,500 in a single day, or an average of 5,000 over one week.
Normal practices wouldn’t return to normal following this happening unless the daily average number of migrant encounters drops to 75% of the thresholds over one week.
Bipartisan negotiations in Congress’ upper chamber — led by Sens. James Lankford (R-OK), Kyrsten Sinema (I-AZ) and Chris Murphy (D-CT) — resulted in the bill that was put forth over the weekend.
The ironic part of the details of the bill is that it allows for more than 5,000 migrants per day into the country, even though Lankford himself said a week prior that would never happen.
“There’s Internet rumors,” Lankford told Fox News Sunday one week ago when asked about the number of migrants per day that would be allowed to enter the U.S. “It would be absolutely absurd for me to agree to 5,000 people a day.”
Not only did Lankford agree to those numbers, he agreed to even more — up to 8,500 in a single day.
The bill, of course, still needs to pass through the Senate with 60 approval votes to avoid the filibuster. And even if it somehow does, it’s highly unlikely to pass through the House — if it even receives consideration at all.
In fact, House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) wrote on the social media platform X that the bill “will be dead on arrival if it’s sent to the lower chamber.
Let me be clear: The Senate Border Bill will NOT receive a vote in the House.
Here’s what the people pushing this “deal” aren’t telling you: It accepts 5,000 illegal immigrants a day and gives automatic work permits to asylum recipients—a magnet for more illegal immigration.
— Steve Scalise (@SteveScalise) February 5, 2024
In addition to border security measures, the bill includes $60 million in additional aid to Ukraine and $14.1 billion in aid to Israel.
