Trump, other Republicans slam Senate border deal as ‘great gift’ to Democrats
NY Post
More Republicans on Capitol Hill turned on the latest Senate border deal Monday, taking issue with more than $20 billion earmarked to effectively expedite migrant processing into the US — as former President Donald Trump called it a “great gift to the Democrats.”
“I can’t support a bill that doesn’t secure the border, provides taxpayer funded lawyers to illegal immigrants and gives billions to radical open borders groups. I’m a no,” said National Republican Senatorial Committee chairman Steve Daines (R-Mont.).
“President Biden should instead use his executive authority to reinstitute the Trump policies he canceled: Remain in Mexico, Title 42, Wall construction,” added the Montanan.
The bill does include $650 million in funding for southern border wall construction and a Title 42-style authority to shut down the border when migrant crossings exceed a 5,000-per-day average over a one-week period.
But GOP border hawks have taken issue with the authority in the hours since the text was released Sunday night, pointing out that asylum seekers can still be processed at ports of entry and that the president can also suspend that provision if he considers it in the “national interest.”
Sen. J.D. Vance (R-Ohio) noted that Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) — one of the three negotiators of the legislation along with Sens. James Lankford (R-Okla.) and Kyrsten Sinema (I-Ariz.) — had acknowledged “the border never closes” under the proposed law.
