WASHINGTON, D.C. – The Senate is trying to revive their bipartisan border security deal. New York Senator Chuck Schumer (D- NY) announced the Senate will take up the bill this week. The bill aims to address the crisis at our border. The bill has a slim chance of making it out of the Senate and an even slimmer chance in the House.
“Most Americans know our country is made stronger because of immigration but they also know the current condition of the border security is simply not acceptable,” said Sen. Schumer.
Last week Sen. Schumer encouraged his colleagues on both sides of the aisle to put aside partisanship and to move forward with the Senate border security deal.
“It would’ve overhauled our asylum laws, hired thousands of new border agents and invested in cutting edge technology to stop the flow of fentanyl and given the president new authorities to close the border,” said Sen. Schumer.
That deal was negotiated by a group of bipartisan Senators months ago. It was then part of a broader foreign aid package but Republicans got cold feet from the border bill once former President Donald Trump expressed opposition to it.
Back in February, Trump posted on the social media app Truth Social saying in part: “This Bill is a great gift to the Democrats, and a Death Wish for The Republican Party.”
Although the legislation has little chance of passing the Senate, Speaker of the House Mike Johnson (R- LA) said should this bill reach the House, it is dead on arrival.
Johnson claims the bill would “codify many of the disastrous Biden open border policies that created this crisis in the first place.” Johnson adds: “Since the beginning of this Congress, the House has passed multiple pieces of bipartisan legislation to secure the border and deport criminal illegal immigrants, including the Laken Riley Act. All of them have been blocked by Schumer and Senate Democrats.”
Johnson instead encourages the Senate to take up the House’s version of a border security bill, better known as H.R.2. The Secure the Border Act.
In a recent newsletter from Pennsylvania Rep. Mike Kelly (R- PA), he advocates for H.R.2. Kelly said in part: “this commonsense policy would require the Biden administration to restart border wall construction, end catch and release and reform the asylum process among other meaningful changes.”