Biden administration dares Republicans to vote for Senate border package

The Biden administration is urging Senate Republicans to support reviving a failed bipartisan border deal that former President Trump abandoned after voicing his opposition.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (Dynamo, N.Y.) plans to hold a second vote on the bill on Thursday, while Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said Monday that Republicans He told President Biden he planned to vote against the bill.

White House officials on Wednesday sought to pin the blame for border failure on Republicans.

“Republican senators will have a new opportunity to decide whether they will support the toughest and fairest border security deal in decades, or continue to put partisan political interests above our national security,” a senior administration official told reporters.

This finger-pointing highlights the downward spiral that has seen the agreement slide from a much-touted, and much-feared, workable bill earlier this year to a twice-failed messaging bill with no chance of becoming law.

Despite its hardline content, just four Republicans voted in favor of it in February, leaving McConnell in a disgrace. Later that month, he announced that he would step down as party leader in November.

On the Democratic side, the deal drew ire from the Congressional Hispanic Caucus (CHC), a key immigration interest that has been conspicuously kept out of the negotiating table, but drew cautious support from progressives who want to see progress on the issue.

Sen. Cory Booker (D-Jersey), one of the progressives who voted in favor of the deal in February, said Tuesday that he supported the deal because he had “serious concerns about some of the content of the bill.” “This is to underline my determination to continue discussions on resolving border challenges, despite my feelings about the issue,” and announced that he would not vote in favor of the bill again in the future.

“I was stunned to see Republican senators, under pressure from President Donald Trump, reject a bill that was negotiated and agreed upon in a bipartisan manner. This is the height of hypocrisy and shows that Republican senators are not serious about seriously resolving our border issues,” Booker said in a statement.

However, Governor Schumer is expected to move forward with the vote, and Sens. Jon Tester (Montana), Tammy Baldwin (Wisconsin), Jacky Rosen (Nevada) and Bob Casey ( This would legitimize Republican obstructionism while weaker Democratic lawmakers in states such as Pennsylvania tout their support for tough border legislation.

Republicans dismissed the new vote as a political stunt, reinforcing the message that Biden’s policies are solely responsible for the situation at the border. Even the lead Republican author of the bill, Sen. James Lankford of Oklahoma, denounced Schumer’s new vote as a political effort to protect vulnerable Democrats.

The law itself remains unchanged from previous revisions, which were skewered by immigrant rights activists, particularly regarding the provision for “closing” the border after a large number of border crossings registered within a certain period of time.

The government does not have the ability to actually close borders. Supporters of the bill have used the term as a proxy for authorities to stop processing asylum claims and immediately expel immigrants to Mexico.

The authority reflects a core concept of the Trump administration’s border strategy, with summary expulsion at the center of policies such as Title 42 and the Migrant Protection Protocols (commonly known as “Remain in Mexico”).

Biden administration officials on Wednesday pointed to two major differences between the Trump administration’s expulsion measures and those proposed in the now-defunct deal. That is an exception to the statutory three-year deadline for the agency and for “individuals who arrive safely and orderly at a port of entry” who pre-booked through the CBP One app.

Either way, supporters say the bill would lead to a worsening humanitarian situation on the border, and any move to enforce the bill’s proposals through executive action could backfire politically.

“Nothing in this bill changes the dynamics at the border or the politics of the situation. But these measures will undoubtedly put asylum seekers in even more dangerous situations and some will certainly lose their lives as a result,” said Thomas Cartwright, an activist with the group Border Witness.

“We urge President Biden to resist the temptation to get a deal just for the sake of getting a deal, especially one that is ineffective, dangerous and antithetical to our nation’s values. And further, if voted down, we would be damned, and in betrayal to his campaign, to issue executive orders that evoke the worst parts of the Senate bill.”