As lawmakers and the public continue to sift through the 370-page Emergency National Security Supplemental Appropriations Act, it’s become clear why its authors kept the wraps on what was included in it. This travesty of a bill wasn’t designed to fix the crisis at our southern border. Rather, it was a cynical attempt to deceive Americans into believing the Biden administration is working on a solution ahead of a crucial presidential election.
Well aware that illegal immigration has become an albatross around President Joe Biden’s neck that could doom his chances of reelection, Democrats, with an assist from the usual Republican suspects, are trying to shift blame for the border crisis to the GOP. The mere introduction of this bill will allow Democrats to say that they offered a solution, but the evil Republicans blocked it. They will ignore the fact that former President Donald Trump’s policies had secured the border — without Congress — and that Biden reversed all of those policies via 94 executive actions during his first 100 days in office.
According to the Washington Post, “[The bill] attempts to close loopholes in the asylum process, limit the use of parole for migrants at the border and give the president new authority to effectively shut down the border to migrants when attempted crossings are high.” All of that sounds great, but the devil is in the details.
For example, reading the fine print of the bill, Rep. Dan Bishop (R-NC) discovered that “Illegal aliens not from Mexico or Canada won’t be counted toward total encounters.” (Unaccompanied minors will not be counted either.) Bishop posted a portion of the bill which reads: “(ii) LIMITATION. – Aliens described in subsection (a)(2)(C) from noncontiguous countries shall not be included in calculating the sum of aliens encountered.” Pretty crazy, huh?
Moreover, the bill authorizes Biden to override the so-called “limits” placed on migrant encounters. It gives Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, who narrowly survived a House impeachment vote on Tuesday night, broad new discretionary powers to grant asylum claims. It also hands sole jurisdiction over immigrant deportation appeals or any “challenges, whether constitutional or otherwise,” to the far-Left District Court for the District of Columbia. This would “strip the power of Texas and other states to challenge some of its provisions in their local federal court,” according to Newsweek.
Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) found that the bill would also lower the credible-fear standard and asylum bar at screening interviews from “significant possibility” to “reasonable possibility,” making it far easier for a migrant to gain entry to the U.S.
The bottom line is that the passage of this abomination would allow 4,999 migrants to enter the U.S. every day before triggering a temporary border shutdown — that Biden is free to override — to reduce the flow by 25%. This would allow more than 1.8 million illegal immigrants into the U.S. each year before reaching the thresholds stipulated in the bill.
Simply put, this bill is a setup for the GOP. It was intended to provide political cover for the Biden administration, whose failure to enforce U.S. immigration laws for the past three years created the current catastrophe. And this bill will not end it.
If passed, it would normalize illegal immigration. It would also allow Democrats to say they are working hard to fix our broken immigration system. If the bill fails, which is likely, Democrats can blame the border crisis on Republicans. In fact, as the legislation circles the drain in the Senate, the attacks on the GOP, and on Trump in particular, have already begun.
The question is, will voters buy it? It’s doubtful. Border security has been Trump’s signature issue. He campaigned on it in 2015, and it has remained a priority for him ever since.
He also proved the federal government already has the tools it needs to get a handle on illegal immigration. The migrant crisis similarly exploded in 2019. By May, encounters at our southern border had reached 144,000. Trump took immediate action that included ending the Obama administration’s disastrous “catch and release” policy and implementing his “Remain in Mexico” policy. By September, the number had dropped to 52,500. By January 2020, the total fell to 29,000, a historic low. (The numbers continued to decline throughout 2020, but much of the drop can be attributed to the pandemic.)
But rather than continuing the Trump-era policies, the Biden administration opened the border and stopped enforcing U.S. immigration laws. Their hope was to import a whole new bloc of voters to cement one-party rule for generations to come.
The result has been a national emergency. Over the past three years, roughly 8 million illegal immigrants have entered the U.S., most of whom are wholly dependent upon the government. The influx has strained resources at every level of government and has stoked resentment among Americans who feel marginalized by the migrants. This has catapulted immigration to a top issue in the 2024 election.
But this bill is not the solution. It won’t fix our open border.
The reality is that Biden doesn’t need a bill from Congress to secure the border. Democrats controlled both chambers of Congress for two years. He needs a pen.
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Regardless, Democrats will undoubtedly try to use this bill to gaslight voters about who is to blame for the border crisis. A CBS News/YouGov poll released in January, however, showed that 68% of those surveyed disapprove of Biden’s handling of the border, a result that is in line with dozens of other polls.
Democrats have underestimated voters’ intelligence, and I don’t think their lies will work out for them this time.
Elizabeth Stauffer is a contributor to the Washington Examiner, Power Line, and AFNN, and she is a fellow at the Heritage Foundation Academy. She is a past contributor to RedState, Newsmax, the Western Journal, and Bongino.com. Her articles have appeared on RealClearPolitics, MSN, the Federalist, and many other sites. Please follow Elizabeth on X or LinkedIn.
