The Daily Observer London Desk: Reporter- Donna Robert
Republicans powered a stiff new border security bill through the House Judiciary Committee overnight Wednesday, brushing aside Democrats’ complaints of cruelty and taking a first concrete step to unravel President Biden’s lenient immigration policies.
The measure passed on a 23-15 party-line vote. It comes as the chaos at the southern border stretches into a third year under Mr. Biden, and just weeks before the administration will give up its most important border tool, the Title 42 powers that had allowed some illegal immigrants to be quickly expelled.
Republicans said their legislation would amount to a reset of the chaos and return the border and asylum systems to what they were intended to be: A chance for the U.S. to have an orderly process for admitting those the country wants.
“We know what the problem is — the failed policies of this administration. We’re working to try to fix those policies and our colleagues on the other side of the aisle don’t wish to join in,” said Rep. Chip Roy, Texas Republican.
The bill still has serious hurdles in front of it.
A group of Hispanic Republicans this week said the bill is not “ready for prime time.” And even if it clears the House, it seems unthinkable that a Democrat-controlled Senate would entertain it, or that Mr. Biden would sign it.
It’s been nearly 30 years since a major piece of immigration legislation cleared Congress.
The bill would give Homeland Security permanent power to expel illegal immigrants as a tool to achieve operational control. It would also overrule the Biden administration’s expansive use of the “parole” power to admit illegal immigrants. The bill would restrict parole to narrow emergency cases.
It would also narrow the grounds for claiming asylum, returning them to the kind of serious cases of government persecution that were originally envisioned when the asylum law was passed more than 40 years ago.
In the interior of the U.S., the bill would mandate use of E-Verify, the government’s currently voluntary program for businesses to check new hires’ work eligibility. Analysts say the ability to get jobs is the most important magnet drawing illegal immigrants.
Wednesday’s 12 hours of debate were a battle between Republicans’ insistence that most of the current wave of illegal immigrants don’t have a right to be in the U.S. and Democrats’ calls for compassion for the relative few who might have valid claims but who would find it tougher to make them under the stricter GOP plan.
One Democrat-sponsored amendment would have exempted illegal immigrant children who arrived without parents from being expelled. When that was rejected, Democrats narrowed it to children under age 5. And when that failed, they narrowed it to infants under age 1.
“We’re left arguing about whether or not we’re going to protect infants, which in my mind is just un-American,” said Rep. Pramila Jayapal, Washington Democrat.
Republicans countered that no young child is coming on their own, but instead are being trafficked by the smuggling cartels who make money off of moving the children, and who use them as a means to distract Border Patrol agents.
Rep. Tom McClintock said Democrats’ lenity was misguided. He pointed to the surge of young children who have come to take advantage of Mr. Biden’s more relaxed approach, and found themselves abused along the journey, or forced into work here in the U.S.
“Their compassionate policies are what is causing and driving this human tragedy,” the California Republican said. “If you return the children home, this trafficking will stop.”
Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, Texas Democrat, said nobody wanted to empower the cartels. But she said she couldn’t ignore the situation.
“This is the reality of desperate people whose babies are going to be sent,” she said.
The debate ranged from the absurd to the deeply philosophical.
One exchange saw two of Congress’ most vocal ideological warriors, Rep. Matt Gaetz, Florida Republican, and Rep. Adam Schiff, California Democrat, sparring over what qualified as a totalitarian dictatorship. Mr. Schiff refused to answer Mr. Gaetz’s question as to whether the Democrat considered Saudi Arabia to qualify.
Just minutes later, Rep. David Cicilline, a Democrat, and Rep. Mike Johnson, a Republican, went toe-to-toe on Biblical scholarship.
Mr. Cicilline, who represents Rhode Island, quoted Leviticus’ admonition to welcome the stranger and said an open asylum system had long been a priority of evangelical Christians.
Mr. Johnson, who represents Louisiana, pointed out that he, not Mr. Cicilline, is an evangelical Christian. And he said Leviticus’ charge is to individuals, not to the government.
“You have to see to whom the order is given. That order is not given to civil authorities and the government. That order is given to individuals,” he said. “We do reach out to the sojourner, but it is not the job of the federal government to do it.”
He then pointed to passages that he said supported building walls to secure people and property.
“We don’t build walls because we hate the people on the outside. We build walls because we love the people on the inside,” Mr. Johnson said.
