As fast as you can shout, “border agents, run!” immigration hardliners are building opposition to a new Senate comprehensive migrant plan that they’ve already labeled “fig leaf” amnesty.
Former immigration officials, including some who have worked the border for decades, and veterans of the fight against a past comprehensive plan in Congress, have already dropped the hammer on a draft plan pushed by Democrat Kyrsten Sinema (AZ) and Republican Thom Tillis (NC) and leaked through the Washington Post.
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That draft would provide a form of amnesty to some two million so-called “Dreamers,” or illegal immigrants who entered the U.S. as youths, and also allow for COVID-era deportations to continue.
Critics seized on the amnesty proposal, concerned that it was just a door opener to larger amnesty.
Heritage Foundation visiting fellows Tom Homan, a former Immigration and Customs Enforcement acting director, and Mark Morgan, former acting commissioner of Customs and Border Protection, teamed up to condemn the proposal, suggesting it would simply boost illegal immigration further beyond the records being smashed every month.
“The Tillis-Sinema proposal is nothing more than amnesty, cloaked with the fig leaf of ‘more funding’ for Border Patrol,” they said in a joint statement.
Former Trump aide Stephen Miller, who worked elbow to elbow with then Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL) to detour a prior bill pushed by the late Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) and others in a pro-amnesty group known as the “gang of eight,” tweeted a long thread of problems with the bill and those pushing it.
The “problem” this bill solves is that Democrats are upset illegal immigrants can’t vote, legally collect federal welfare, or benefit from chain migration. This bill solves that “problem” by making them citizens. It is the only “problem” this bill addresses.
— Stephen Miller (@StephenM) December 5, 2022
One of his biggest concerns was that Democrats would score best because it would turn those given amnesty into liberal voters at a time when the GOP is finally winning over some Hispanics.
“The ‘problem’ this bill solves is that Democrats are upset illegal immigrants can’t vote, legally collect federal welfare, or benefit from chain migration. This bill solves that ‘problem’ by making them citizens. It is the only ‘problem’ this bill addresses,” he said.
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— Washington Examiner (@dcexaminer) December 6, 2022
Homan and Morgan said the bill would increase border funding, but raised concerns that it would be used like other programs under President Joe Biden to benefit immigrants.
“The problem is not lack of funding or lack of agents — it is an administration that has undone effective border security policies and replaced them with an open-borders agenda that has sparked the worst border crisis in our history. Congress should reject amnesty in all its forms, and the new Congress must get down to business. That means impeaching DHS Secretary [Alejandro] Mayorkas, engaging in meaningful oversight of the administration, and passing reforms that will secure our border and reduce illegal immigration,” they said.
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For his part today, Biden said that there are bigger problems he wants to focus on than the border crisis.
With Democrats likely in the driver’s seat in the Senate next year, the bill is likely to get an airing once it is finally unveiled.
