Congressional Republicans are skeptical over a deal made behind closed doors that would shut down the border if crossings reached a certain level of illegal immigrants.
The Senate established a deal on Friday that they intend to release soon that would give President Joe Biden a new expulsion authority if the migrant encounters exceeded 4,000 a day over a one-week period. However, the specific details of the law have not been released yet.
Senator Mike Lee from Utah said, “What’s holding this up is that there isn’t a bill. We haven’t seen text. They’ve been negotiating it for about four months, and they won’t share it with us. Even after we raised those concerns, they still won’t share text with us. It’s just enough to raise some real red flags.”
Sens. Rick Scott from Florida and Todd Young from Indiana echoed these remarks, requesting the text to be released for proper review and finalization of the bill’s particulars. The House, however, does not seem interested in being involved in the matter.
Speaker of the House Mike Johnson gestured toward the sweeping border bill that the House passed last year as the standard he intended to uphold. “Since the day I became Speaker, I have assured our Senate colleagues that the House would not accept any counterproposal if it would not actually solve the problems that have been created by the administration’s subversive policies,” Johnson wrote.
Republicans feel the pressure from former President Donald Trump to reject the border deal. Trump has implored Republicans to dismiss the border deal because it would give Biden a victory on immigration, an issue that Trump intends to prioritize in the upcoming election. Scott has also argued for the deal to be shared with the former president so he can prepare how he wants to enforce the issue if he wins the election.