Mike Johnson breaks down the reported details of the Senate border deal

House Speaker Mike Johnson sent a letter to all House Republicans on Friday stating his opposition to the reported details of a border security deal being negotiated in the Senate.

The Senate is currently taking into account proposals to increase border security and reform the immigration parole process for asylum seekers, demanded by Republicans, in exchange for authorizing aid to Ukraine for its war against Russia. After the alleged details of the plan were reported to the press, Johnson indicated that he would not support the deal if they were included, according to the letter obtained by The Daily Caller News Foundation.

“I wanted to provide a brief update on the supplement and the border as the Senate appears unable to reach any agreement,” Johnson began in his letter. “If the rumors about the content of the draft proposals were true, it would have been dead on arrival in the House anyway.”

Letter from Speaker Mike Johnson dated January 26, 2024for Daily Caller News Foundation on Scribd

The negotiations — currently led by Republican Sen. James Lankford of Oklahoma, Democratic Sen. Chris Murphy of Connecticut and independent Sen. Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona — are not yet complete and a draft proposal has not been released. However, several media outlets have alleged the content of the agreement, which has generated conservative opposition.

An alleged aspect of the deal, reported from The New York Times, refers to reforming “humanitarian parole,” a status granted by the Department of Homeland Security that temporarily allows some aliens fleeing persecution to remain in the United States without obtaining a visa. The Biden administration has issued parole status to millions of foreigners from nations such as Cuba, Venezuela, Haiti, Nicaragua, Afghanistan and Ukraine.

Republicans seek to significantly reduce the granting of parole to aliens who seek asylum, show up at a port of entry or cross the border illegally. According to the Times, the draft proposal in the Senate would add detention capacity for the US Border Patrol and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to prevent the issuance of parole to illegal entrants, who often it is done due to lack of space.

The deal also reportedly includes a threshold of migrant encounters per day that, if reached, would suspend parole and prosecution of foreign migrants. The threshold is 5,000 people per day, although that number is far below the current number of daily migrant encounters by the Border Patrol, the Times reported.

“[T]there has to be a limit on parole here,” said Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-South Carolina.

“[T]they want that outcome and that outcome is terrible for the American people,” Republican Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas said Thursday during a press conference to oppose the deal, which he called a “stinking pile of shit.” . seconds on the Hill

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell supports the deal, seconds to a Politico report. “He is fully behind the border bill, fully behind support for Ukraine, and he will not let the political considerations of any campaign stand in the way of his support,” Republican Sen. Mitt Romney of Utah said of the views of McConnell on the matter. .

In 2023, the House of Representatives passed HR 2, known as the “Border Security Act”, which has served as the body's border security proposal in the negotiations. The bill would allocate funds to build a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border, bar asylum status to people who enter the country illegally, and expand law enforcement authority to remove foreign nationals ordered to be deported.

Other Republicans, however, have attacked the alleged parole reform for not being strict enough. “What is currently being worked on in the Senate will make no sense in terms of security and closing the borders,” former President Donald Trump, the front-runner for the party's presidential nomination, wrote in a statement.

Democrats, on the other hand, want to preserve the parole authority and limit the deportation of aliens who have long been in the country and ordered deported from the United States. “Expanded accelerated removal across the country is an incredibly dangerous tool,” said Democratic Sen. Alex Padilla of California on NBC.

“Today I reiterate that House Republicans will vigorously oppose any White House or Senate policy proposals that further incentivize illegal aliens to break our laws,” Johnson wrote.

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