Senate Finally Releases Text of Bipartisan Immigration Legislation

The much-anticipated Senate immigration bill has finally been released. 

For weeks, there have been reports of the details of the legislation, none of it favorable for the GOP.  

Now that the text has been released, we can finally go over the 370-page document to form our own opinions of the legislation. 

It’s Finally Here 

The major players in this legislation are Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT), Sen. James Lankford (R-OK), and Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (I-AZ). 

The White House also had input from none other than Secretary Mayorkas, who has been working around our immigration laws since he assumed his post.  

Sinema has been front and center, telling everyone to read the bill before making their opinions known, vowing that it will help control the border and expedite deportations.  

While the legislation may curb migration from current numbers, it does not appear that it will curb the numbers by very much. This is more or less codifying the workarounds that Biden has already put in place.  

Sinema brought up the point that catch and release will be ended, which she assumes will slow the flow because coyotes plan on having these migrants released so they can start to work to pay off their debt for getting them over the border.  

One key aspect of the legislation is the processing of asylum claims, which would more or less be rubber-stamped by processors, so this could be a major sticking point for Republicans.  

In terms of the border shutdown clause, the average must be a 5,000 average for a week straight, or a single day of more than 8,000. 

That would trigger the automatic shutdown, but those numbers are more or less what we are already seeing and still about triple what the numbers were under Trump.  

For me, the sticking point is the daily number limit, which I believe is unacceptable.  

This would allow for roughly 1.8 million migrants to cross before any triggers would be activated, which is only about 25% less than Biden is allowing over the border right now.  

I will go out on a limb and say there is no way GOP House members get behind this bill enough for it to pass, even if the Senate manages to get nine Republicans to vote for it in the Senate.