‘Absolutely Not’: House GOP Balks at Senate Immigration Plan

House Republicans are unlikely to take up the bipartisan immigration reform deal being negotiated in the Senate as Speaker Johnson remains on thin ice with the right flank of his conference. The deal, which is being hammered out by a group of three senators, will do nothing to stem the tide of migrant crossings, conservatives say. “Absolutely not,” Mr. Johnson replied curtly on X to the reported details of the immigration reform plan, which were leaked to a conservative anti-immigration group, the Immigration Accountability Project. The plan — which is being negotiated by a Democrat, Senator Murphy, a Republican, Senator Lankford, and the independent senator of Arizona, Kyrsten Sinema — reportedly includes work permits for migrants who cross the border, an increased number of visas available to the families of high-skilled laborers, and an increase in the number of green cards issued by 50,000 a year.The deal would also restrict the entrance of migrants who fail to appear at a port of entry, permit the influx of up to 5,000 migrants a day into the country, and provide taxpayer-funded legal representation for unaccompanied migrant children and mentally incompetent migrants. Republican politicians and activists say it is a nonstarter. According to Punchbowl News, Mr. Johnson told House Republicans on Sunday night that he would not touch the deal and would instead wait for President Trump or some other Republican to be sworn in as president next year.“The Senate’s Schumer-Lankford ‘border deal’ is a deal for illegal aliens — not Americans,” Congressman Andy Biggs said in response to the leaked details of the bill. “We need to be securing the border and removing illegal aliens from our country — not giving illegal aliens work permits and taxpayer-funded lawyers.”Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene declared the proposal a “border SURRENDER,” adding, “Any elected U.S. politician that supports this doesn’t represent Americans, they represent the rest of the world.”Mr. Biggs and some of his fellow conservatives, including Congressmen Matt Gaetz, Eli Crane, and Matt Rosendale, recently traveled to the border with Mr. Johnson to hear from border patrol agents firsthand about the migrant crossings. They gave Mr. Johnson and President Biden an ultimatum: “Shut the border down, or we’ll shut the government down.”Mr. Lankford said vaguely on X on Sunday that the details leaked to the Immigration Accountability Project were not accurate, but did not elaborate. “I encourage people to read the border security bill before they judge the border security bill,” he said. “I also advise people not to believe everything you read on the internet….”The Sun has reached out to his office for comment. Liberal pro-immigration advocates are also expressing reservations about the Senate’s deal. The former director of Border Management for Mr. Biden’s National Security Council, Andrea Flores, took to the opinion pages of the New York Times on Monday to describe the negotiations as a “political trap for Democrats.”“As a former government official who has worked in the executive and legislative branches to identify solutions to mass migration at the southern border, I agree with lawmakers that the status quo is unsustainable and that reforms are needed,” Ms. Flores wrote. “But this deal will not alleviate Mr. Biden’s border challenges unless Congress builds legal migration pathways that weaken cartels who have profited the most from new asylum restrictions.”

‘Absolutely Not’: House GOP Balks at Senate Immigration Plan

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