The Border Bill That Does Nothing to Stem the Flow of Illegal Immigrants
It's Not a Border Bill, It's a Fund Illegal Immigrants Now and in the Future Bill
Recently the United States Senate introduced a bill that many politicians have termed the “Border Bill.” In reporting on this bill headlines from various news sources are as follows:
What the border bill would and wouldn’t do – CNN.
US Senate unveils $118 billion bill on border security – Reuters.
Senate blocks bipartisan $118bn bill on US-Mexico border – the Guardian.
Senate Border Security Bill Text Explained – Newsweek.
Reading these headlines, you might think that politicians are crazy. Why won’t they pass a bill that protects border security? Well, there are probably many reasons, and the purpose of this article is to explain them to you.
The bill has three parts. The first part, Division A, titled NATIONAL SECURITY SUPPLEMENTAL APPROPRIATIONS ACT, comprising some sixty-one pages, and allocates funds for a variety of purposes, including aid to Ukraine, aid to Israel, deterring the Chinese, nuclear energy, submarine bases, replenishing ammunition stockpiles, financial aid to the US military for numerous purposes and financial aid for illegal immigrant programs.
The second part, Division B, titled BORDER SECURITY AND COMBATTING FENTANYL SUPPLEMENTAL APPROPRIATIONS ACT, provides money for more immigration judges, for government paid legal representation for illegal immigrants, to combat human and drug trafficking, to speed up DNA testing, to fight Mexican cartels, to hire more border agents, to increase the use of technology at ports of entry, to provide facilities and services to illegal immigrants, to provide staging facilities and flights for illegal immigrants, and to provide law enforcement training.
The third part, Division C, titled THE BORDER ACT OF 2024, is the longest part of the bill, comprising 280 of the 370 pages of the bill. This section of the bill provides hiring flexibility for Homeland Security to hire additional staff to process illegal immigrants through the system and to change the hiring pre-requisites of candidates, authorizes alternatives to detention facilities for illegal immigrants, training of border patrol agents, authorizes sending notices by electronic delivery, establishes processes for providing immediate protection determinations and immediate authorization of work permits, and changes to other procedural issues.
This section also outlines certain rules and regulations relating to illegal immigrants qualifying as asylum seekers, allows the Secretary of Homeland Security to enact emergency measures if illegal immigrant encounters exceed certain numbers (4,000 to 5,000 for discretionary emergency measures and over 5,000 for mandatory emergency measures), establishes special rules for Afghans, establishes rules for other allies who seek asylum in the US, authorizes additional visas for legal immigrants, provides work authorization for illegals in the US seeking asylum, provides illegal immigrants information on their rights and due process in their own language, and provides for legal counsel for illegal immigrants.
I am not a politician or member of congress, and there may be certain machinations of government that are a mystery to me, but why are three separate bills – foreign aid and financing the military, combating human and drug trafficking, and protecting the border – all rolled up into one bill? These should be separate bills, each one brought before congress and voted upon based up that bill’s merits.
It is also very strange that the first two divisions of the bill, the ones relating to foreign aid and the military, and the second relating to human and drug trafficking, both include sections that provide funds to provide a host of services to illegal immigrants. Shouldn’t service to illegal immigrants, assuming the government should be providing these services in the first place, be in a separate bill specifically for funding services to illegal immigrants? Why would you mix providing services to illegal immigrants in the same bill that provides billions of dollars in foreign aid to Ukraine and Israel?
The third division of the bill, the one that is titled the Border Act, includes very little in it that stops illegal immigrants from coming across the border. It provides the Secretary of Homeland Security with the authority to enact a state of emergency, but the Secretary does not have to enact that state of emergency until the number of people crossing the border illegally is close to two million per year. Even if the border security emergency is enacted, it is not applicable to all illegal immigrants as there are exceptions (such as accompanied minors).
What does the border security emergency authorize? It authorizes the government to summarily remove from the United States any illegal immigrant caught within one hundred miles of the US border, and who has been in the US less than 14 days. I wonder how the government will be able to determine if any illegal immigrant has been here for more or less than 14 days? Knowing the rules I expect illegal immigrants will quickly move beyond the 100-mile limit (in buses or planes provided by the US government) as quickly as they can, and if apprehended will certainly claim they have been in the US for longer than 14 days.
The border security emergency also authorizes the Secretary of Homeland Security to “prohibit entry into the United States of any alien.” Hold on a second. Aren’t we supposed to be prohibiting entry into the US of illegal aliens? What this bill says is that we will only prohibit entry into the US if we know that more than 5,000 a day (or two million a year) are entering the US. Otherwise come on in.
Well at least that is a start. So, what happens if a border patrol agent catches an illegal immigrant within the 100-mile limit and has evidence that the illegal immigrant has been here less than 14 days? The illegal immigrant is summarily removed unless the illegal immigrant “manifests a fear of persecution” at being returned to his/her place of origin or Mexico. In such cases, the illegal gets an interview with an asylum officer and if the illegal immigrant doesn’t like the results, he can appeal to a supervisor. The asylum officer and supervisor have complete discretion as to whether to allow the person to stay in the US.
Again, the enactment of the border emergency is at the discretion of the Secretary of Homeland Security and the Secretary only must authorize the emergency if 5,000 or more illegal encounters occur each day in a 7-day period (or about two million illegals a year). Got-aways, unaccompanied minors and illegals who don’t enter through the Southern Border don’t count in the total. Further the emergency can only be enacted for 14 days and can only be enacted for 270 days in year one, 225 days in year two and 180 days in year three. Given our present administration’s lack of apparent lack of concern about border crossings, it seems logical to assume that the Secretary of Homeland Security will not authorize a border emergency unless forced to do so and will end the authorization as quickly as possible.
Additionally, the bill provides that any legal challenges to this section of the bill can only be brought before the United States Court for the District of Columbia and that court shall have sole jurisdiction including any constitutional challenges. That means if anyone brings a constitutional challenge to this bill, it cannot go before the Supreme Court.
The Border Emergency Authority part of the act comprises twenty pages. The remaining 260 pages of the act have nothing to do with securing the border. The other 260 pages provide almost exclusively for changes in the bureaucratic and convoluted rules and regulations for processing of illegal immigrants already in the country (and those who will come in the future), special treatment for Afghans, and allocating money for funding housing, welfare, legal assistance, and a host of other services and benefits to illegal immigrants including providing authorization to work in the US.
To summarize, the so-called Border Bill, spends twenty of 370 pages on something that would control and or reduce the number of illegals entering the country. As explained the Secretary of Homeland Security can only be forced to enact the border security emergency authorization if the flow of illegal immigrants (not including unaccompanied minors and only including illegals who come across the southern border) exceeds 5,000 per day for 7 days (equating to about 2 million a year).
The enactment of this emergency authorization will allow border patrol agents to remove (return) anyone who they find within 100 miles of the US border, and who has been in the US less than 14 days, but if the illegal claims he/she has a “fear of persecution” he gets an interview and can them appeal that interview if the illegal doesn’t like the results. Obviously, illegal immigrants will understand these rules and will quickly move outside the 100-mile limit, and if caught, will claim they have been in the US for more than 14 days. Realistically how many will be returned across the border? A rational thinker must expect very few.
It would be like me saying that anyone who manages to break into my house is given a gold bar, and if you try to break into my house, no one will stop you. This bill does more to incentive illegals to continue to enter the US, than it does to stop them given that it provides tens of billions of dollars in funding for illegal immigrants already in the country.
No wonder many members of congress voted against this bill. My question is what is wrong with those who voted in favor of it? Or more importantly, why did they vote for it?
Given there is no logical reason to vote for this bill if one wants to control our border, one can only conclude that those voting for this bill were engaged in some form of political opportunism, want illegal immigration to continue for political gain, did so as payback for backroom favors, were being bribed by other politicians or political groups, were the subject of blackmail by other politicians or political groups, or were just asleep at the wheel. My intuition suggests at least one of these reasons, and in many cases numerous of these reasons, apply to every member of congress who voted in favor of the bill.
Nice analysis. The questions you pose are tbe essence of our congressional dysfunction.