Two members of the United States Senate – one Democrat and one Republican – are attempting to revive a pro-amnesty immigration deal to pass through the outgoing Congress during the lame-duck session, before the GOP takes control of the House of Representatives in January.
Axios reports that the effort is being led by Senators Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.) and Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), and would include legal status for at least 2 million illegal aliens who came to the U.S. illegally as children, referred to by pro-amnesty advocates as “Dreamers.” The bill would also allegedly provide billions of dollars in additional border security funding.
Sinema and Tillis, who also voted in favor of other bipartisan deals such as infrastructure and gun control, have begun working on a draft framework for the bill. The proposal is set to include between $25 billion and $40 billion in additional funding for the Border Patrol, including the hiring of more agents and an increase in overall pay, as well as a reform of existing asylum laws to make it harder to abuse on a mass scale. The bill also provides amnesty for 2 million “dreamers,” and would implement a temporary extension of Title 42 for one more year, to give Congress more time to work on a more formal plan to stop the flood of illegals over the border.
Concerns over the already-porous southern border have been amplified by a judge ordering the federal government to stop enforcing the Trump-era policy of Title 42, which used the COVID-19 pandemic and national health concerns as a cover for mass deportations and effectively shutting down the border, which proved extremely effective in 2020. The official end date for Title 42’s enforcement is set for December 21st.
Meanwhile, another federal judge may soon rule the Obama-era amnesty program for Dreamers, DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals) to be unconstitutional, thus again raising the possibility that the millions of illegals who came into the country as children could be deported just like the rest of the illegals.
Any such bill would need the support of at least 10 Republicans to reach a 60-vote threshold, which is necessary to overcome efforts by any one Republican to kill the bill through the use of the filibuster. However, Congress is also concerned with numerous other bills that it aims to pass in the lame-duck session, including funding bills for the federal government and the military.