Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) is reportedly urging Republicans in the Senate to vote against a border bill that was unveiled in the Democrat-controlled chamber on Monday.
House critics of the bill have warned that the $118 billion package is geared toward getting President Joe Biden re-elected in a prospective 2020 rematch against former President Donald Trump while Florida Governor Ron DeSantis said that the bill “legalizes illegal immigration.”
Numerous Republican senators have already come out and voiced strong opposition the bill, leading McConnell to urge the remaining Republicans senators to block the bill.
“McConnell recommended to GOP senators behind closed doors that they BLOCK the border bill on Wednesday, per multiple sources, bc it’s clear that most Republicans are preparing to vote no — either because they oppose the bill or want more time,” reporter Andrew Desiderio wrote on X.
“McConnell explicitly recommended a NO vote on cloture on the motion to proceed, according to several attendees,” he continued. “McConnell said the problem isn’t what Lankford negotiated, it’s that the political mood in the country has changed.”
Top House Republicans signaled shortly after the bill was unveiled that it would be dead on arrival if it made it to the lower chamber.
House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA), Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-LA), Majority Whip Tom Emmer (R-MN), and Chairwoman Elise Stefanik (R-NY) killed the bill in a joint statement.
“House Republicans oppose the Senate immigration bill because it fails in every policy area needed to secure our border and would actually incentivize more illegal immigration,” the statement said. “Among its many flaws, the bill expands work authorizations for illegal aliens while failing to include critical asylum reforms. Even worse, its language allowing illegals to be ‘released from physical custody’ would effectively endorse the Biden ‘catch and release’ policy.”
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“The so-called ‘shutdown’ authority in the bill is anything but, riddled with loopholes that grant far too much discretionary authority to Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas – who has proven he will exploit every measure possible, in defiance of the law, to keep the border open,” the statement continued. “The bill also fails to adequately stop the President’s abuse of parole authority and provides for taxpayer funds to fly and house illegal immigrants in hotels through the FEMA Shelter and Services Program.”
“America’s sovereignty is at stake,” the statement concluded. “Any consideration of this Senate bill in its current form is a waste of time. It is DEAD on arrival in the House. We encourage the U.S. Senate to reject it.”