Center for Immigration Studies Analysis of 2024 Senate Immigration Bill (H.R. 815)

The Center for Immigration Studies released an analysis of the Senate’s border deal, involving a $16 billion foreign aid package for Ukraine, in exchange for border “reforms”. On Wednesday, February 8, the Senate voted the bill down, 49-50, falling short of the required 60-vote threshold.

Podcast: Senate Border Bill Update
Andrew Arthur provides background on the bill and explains what changes would be implemented if it became law, including a 5,000 per-day cap on illegal entries, after which the border would be briefly closed to other migrants.

Blog: The Good — and a Lot of Bad — in the Senate Border ‘Deal’
What does the bill do to close these three loopholes?

1. an exception for the quick removal of unaccompanied alien children (UACs) from non-contiguous countries in a poorly thought-out 2008 bill
2. a 20-day release requirement for adults who enter illegally with children in “family units” (FMUs), the product of a poorly though-out 2015 district court decision
3. and the low “credible fear” standard for border migrants seeking asylum.

Blog: The Availability of Work Authorization Is a Known ‘Pull Factor’ for Illegal Immigration and the Submission of Fraudulent Asylum Claims
The proposal appears to want to strengthen a handful of these pull factors by requiring DHS to quickly release migrants who are placed into the bill’s new asylum adjudication process into the interior of the United States and allow them to apply for work authorization documents (EAD), in some cases, immediately after the submission of an asylum claim.

Blog: Latest Immigration Bill Spends $1.29 billion on Ineffective ATD Program
The bill doesn’t require the hiring of ICE officers, it doesn’t require additional detention beds, and it doesn’t promote deportation of illegal aliens. But it does give over a billion dollars in taxpayer money to activist groups that encourage illegal immigration.

Op-ed: Border bill is terrible, and a way for Biden to dodge blame for not enforcing the law
Obama Chief of Staff Rahm Emmanuel once said, “never let a crisis go to waste.” The Biden administration goes one better: “Never create a crisis and let it go to waste.”

Op-ed: Border Bill Ironies
Three ironies surrounding the politics of the Senate’s border deal.