The bipartisan Senate border deal announced Sunday night addresses Republican demands for new restrictions on illegal crossings but already has provoked vehement opposition from Donald Trump allies and House GOP leaders.
Immigration is moving to the forefront of voter concerns as the number of undocumented migrants crossing the U.S.-Mexico border surges, repeatedly setting new monthly records under President Joe Biden. In December, border authorities encountered more than 302,000 migrants along the southwest border, more than seven times the 41,000 encounters reported the same month in 2019, just before the global disruptions unleashed by the pandemic.
Some conservative Republicans and media outlets promoted caricatured versions of the emerging pieces of the compromise as it was being assembled. Negotiators in turn hotly disputed those assertions. The release of a bill text now makes clear what the compromise would do.
Emergency border shutdown
Biden would have to immediately close much of the border to asylum-seekers and other migrants using sweeping new emergency authority. U.S. border officials would turn away migrants between official ports of entry, except unaccompanied children and people fleeing torture.
The president would be required to activate the shutdown authority whenever average daily migrant arrivals hit 5,000 for a week or 8,500 on a single day. He would have the option to do so whenever the daily average hits 4,000 for a week.
The border would have effectively been shut down if the bill had been in place during the surge in recent months, per top negotiator Senator Kyrsten Sinema, independent of Arizona. The border would stay shut until migrant arrivals drop to 75% of the trigger point.
U.S. citizens, permanent residents and foreigners with legitimate visas still would be allowed to come into the country at official border entry points even during such an emergency shutdown….
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