Republican senators are scheduled to take to the Senate floor on Wednesday to urge Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York to bring several border bills to a floor vote as Vice President Kamala Harris and vulnerable Democratic lawmakers across the country pledge to help border security.
The group, led by Sen. Katie Britt, R-Alabama, plans to push for consideration of several tough bills on the border, immigration and cooperation with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), including the Liken-Riley Act and the WALL Act, according to a statement provided by Britt's office.
“Vice President Harris has now said she has changed policy positions on some of our nation's most pressing issues,” Britt is expected to say on the floor before asking for unanimous consent to move the bill forward. “We'll see whether the party believes her arguments, or whether they will defend the radical policy positions that VP Harris has long advocated for and that the Biden-Harris Administration has pushed through these last few trying times.”
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Republican senators plan to call on Governor Schumer and Democrats to vote for a Republican-backed border bill. (Reuters)
Alabama will be joined in the Senate by Sens. Markwayne Mullin (R-Okla.), James Lankford (R-Okla.) and Mike Lee (R-Utah).
The Laken Riley Act is named after the 22-year-old Georgia college student who was found dead on the University of Georgia campus in February. Jose Ibarra, an illegal immigrant, has been charged with 10 counts since her death but has pleaded not guilty.
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Laken Riley poses for a photo posted to Facebook after she was found dead near a lake on campus at the University of Georgia on February 22. An illegal immigrant has been charged with her murder. (Laken Riley/Facebook)
The bill would require ICE to detain illegal immigrants who commit crimes such as theft, robbery, larceny and shoplifting.
Democratic Sen. Jon Tester of Montana made headlines in May when he voiced support for the bill, despite blocking a vote on the revised version of the $1.2 trillion spending package in March.
The procedural vote failed along party lines, with Tester voting no.
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Jose Ibarra is pictured moments before entering a not guilty plea on Friday, May 31. Ibarra is charged with 10 counts in connection with the death of Georgia nursing student Laken Riley. (Pool)
The Montana Senate race is expected to be especially tough, with his opponent, former Navy SEAL Tim Sheehy, beating him in a new poll and major political handicappers also favoring Republicans in the state.
Tester has pledged to support the bill if it comes up for a standalone vote, but such votes are increasingly rare in the Senate and even rarer when it comes to minority party priorities.
Schumer's office declined to say whether he would put Republican bills like the Laken Riley Act and the WALL Act up for votes at Republican urging, but Schumer has so far been reluctant to schedule votes on those bills, suggesting he has no plans to do so.
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On the left is Laken Riley, and on the right is Chuck Schumer. (Getty Images)
Harris and vulnerable Senate Democrats have touted the failed immigration bill as “bipartisan” despite only two Republicans voting in favor of it in a recent procedural vote, and used it to bolster their own calls for a secure southern border during the election campaign.
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Lankford, who will speak with Britt on Wednesday, was one of the bill's negotiators, along with Sens. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) and Kyrsten Sinema (I-Ariz.). In recent floor comments on the subject, he accused Harris of using the border bill as a campaign stunt. “No disrespect to the vice president, but these negotiations have been going on for four months. She did not initiate the negotiations and she was not a part of them for one second. Not one second,” he said.
The negotiated bill has been roundly criticized by many Republican senators, some of whom say it would make the situation on the southern border worse. Some Republican senators who sponsored parts of the bill have suggested the administration will not implement it properly and will use its passage as an excuse to refrain from further action at the border.
