Republican Senate leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) is quietly pressuring GOP Senators to promise their support for his border bill before it is released to the public for debate.
Multiple media reports say the still-secret bill is largely complete. But its release has been delayed until McConnell can lock in at least 20 of the 49 GOP Senators, perhaps by making minor changes.
The draft bill is also being reviewed by the Senate’s Committee on Appropriations because the Biden administration wants roughly $15 billion to operate its migration program in 2024. The money is needed by Democrats to process, transport, feed, house, and hide arriving 2024 migrants –and the 6.2 million migrants already admitted— during the run-up to the 2024 election.
The extra spending can also be used to persuade Senators who do not yet support the giveaway.
Some — not a majority — of the GOP Senators are denouncing the bill, which will likely provide employers with a gusher of cheap and compliant foreign workers who can replace better-paid Americans.
“Half of my Republican caucus is, as we speak, ready to sell out, and they’re ready to sell out fake border reform in exchange for what they really want, which is to send more of your tax dollars to Ukraine,” Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) told Tucker Carlson.
McConnell is backing the bill partly because Democrats refuse to support military aid for Ukraine until the GOP allows Biden’s border-bailout bill to pass.
Another opponent, Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT), told reporters on Tuesday the bill is being kept hidden until top leaders have won the votes they need to rush it through the Senate:
We’ve been through these things so many times where we’re told, “Oh, there’s not a deal yet, not a deal, not a deal.” All of a sudden: ‘Oh, there’s [a] deal!’ And then we are given the equivalent of a snap election, like a snap vote, without really any opportunity to read it and no opportunity to amend it.
“What we don’t want is to receive bill text and then be asked to vote on it the next day or the next day after that or a very short period of time,” Lee told TheHill.com after the 49 GOP Senators met for a weekly lunch meeting on Tuesday.
“There’s talk about maybe getting something to the floor and voting on it in a day or two,” Sen. Mike Braun (R-IN) told reporters. “I think that would cause a real uproar … [because] it’s going to be a large, complicated bill to where you don’t have [an] adequate amount of time to pour through it properly.”
The leaked descriptions of the bill do not include any significant curbs on illegal or illegal migration. Instead, the bill would allow many more migrants to be imported for low-wage jobs that would otherwise go to Americans for decent wages.
The bill also includes new incentives for foreign college graduates to take jobs for low wages at Fortune 500 companies. Without the imported foreign workers, those jobs would put many young American graduates on the first rung of a career ladder.
For now, the draft bill looks like less like a border security bill than a law to import more workers for GOP-backer employers, said Chris Chmielenski, president of the Immigration Accountability Project.
Because the imported workers will have a clear route to green cards, the bill is a 2024 version of President George W. Bush’s “Any Willing Worker” program, he told Breitbart.
Sen. James Lankford (R-OK) is the GOP face of the negotiations.
But Democrats also get something from the deal, Chmielenski said, because it will help President Joe Biden and other Democrats to declare the migration over and irrelevant to the 2024 presidential election.
The workers-for-votes swap makes sense for many Democrats because they fear Biden’s easy-migration policies could cost him the 2024 election.
Biden’s borders policies are now the top issue in U.S. politics, according to a January 17-18 poll for Harvard University. The poll reported that 57 percent of the voters said, ”I miss Donald Trump’s policies on the economy, immigration, and crime.”
On January 18, former President Donald Trump criticized the draft Biden bailout bill, saying:
I do not think we should do a Border Deal, at all, unless we get EVERYTHING needed to shut down the INVASION of Millions & Millions of people, many from parts unknown, into our once great, but soon to be great again, Country! Also, I have no doubt that our wonderful Speaker of the House, Mike Johnson, will only make a deal that is PERFECT ON THE BORDER. Remember, without Strong Borders and Honest Elections, we don’t have a Country!!!
A short excerpt from a speech that Trump gave to his voters:
To all immigrants, if you hate America, support Jihad or want to eliminate Israel, we do not want you in our country. pic.twitter.com/MJpeNCyLHA
— Mossad Commentary (@MOSSADil) January 24, 2024
Several GOP Senators have announced they will oppose the corporate giveaway to their GOP donors. They include Paul, Lee, Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-AL), and Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX).
Tom, retired homebuilder in Concord, NH, just voted Trump. “Why is it we feel the need to secure Ukraine’s border, Israel’s border — everybody’s but our own,” he said. “We don’t pay attention to our own problems at home, yet we seem to pay attention to other countries’ problems” pic.twitter.com/1SFqIYYgXX
— Michael Tracey (@mtracey) January 23, 2024
The bill will also help Democratic-run cities to absorb and hide many more foreign workers.
Currently, Democrats in many cities — Denver, Chicago, Boston, New York — are losing political support because their “Sanctuary City” policies are attracting large numbers of low-wage, welfare-dependent migrants.
It’s far passed time for the corrupt turtle to be removed from the swamp.
Fuck you McConnel, you ARE the problem. The citizens of KY need to give this old corrupt coot the boot.
McConnell.. Get out of The Senate.. You need to be in a home where you can’t get out to destroy America.. You are a traitor!!!
FMM! mcCON nell IS A RHINO.
Republicans HOLD YOUR GROUND
DO NOT GIVE IN TO THE demonRATS.
WE the PEOPLE WANT OUR BOARDERS SECURE & SAFE.
FJB & his Open Boarder Policy.
McConnell needs to be put out to pasture, he is weak and is the prime definition of what a RINO is. He might as well run as a democrat if the people of Kentucky refuse to elect a real conservative. McConnell certainly has shown he’s not.