AUSTIN, Texas — The House GOP is extremely wary about including Democratic proposals, such as a pathway to citizenship for illegal immigrants, in any bill aimed at responding to the border crisis, according to a Texas Republican involved in strategy discussions.
Rep. Brian Babin (R-TX) told a gathering of conservative policymakers Friday that Republicans want to avoid being forced into a “grand bargain” — obtaining money for border security in return for amnesty — as former President Ronald Reagan agreed to in the 1986 Immigration Reform and Control Act.
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“It's incumbent upon us as a Congress to make sure that this grand bargain is not — this deal is not worked out,” Babin said during a discussion on border security at the Texas Public Policy Foundation’s annual conference Friday. "In the opinion of the majority of our Republican conference, I can tell you that we want to see a secure border before we get into any kind of major immigration reform."
Republicans fear that providing legal status to any or all of the 11 million illegal immigrants in the United States would have the same result as when nearly 3 million illegal immigrants in 1986 had immigration offenses wiped off their records. It could also undermine the party's goal of deterring future illegal immigration, Babin said.
"We have decades and decades of experience to show that all this does if you grant amnesty you just incentivize more and more and more to simply come in, and we cannot allow this to continue on because the green light, the flashing welcome sign, welcome mat has got to be turned off," Babin said.
House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) promised last November that resolving the border crisis would be the chamber’s top priority come January. Two months later, the GOP has yet to pass any related legislation.
In July 2022, House Republicans debuted a comprehensive plan to regain control of the southern border. The Republican plan pulled from previous initiatives used by the Trump administration and was meant to address the state of the border before conceding to the Democrats' demands on providing solutions for people living in the country illegally.
Republicans have stalled out on promised action to fix the border crisis after winning back a majority in the House due to infighting among the House and Senate GOP.
House GOP leadership attempted to use a House Freedom Caucus member's Border Safety and Security Act of 2023 as the vehicle to tackle the border. HR 29 was reintroduced this session by immigration stalwart Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX), the Freedom Caucus’s policy chairman.
Approximately 60 House Republicans have signed on to Roy’s plan. One centrist Republican has refused to sign on, prompting the Texas GOP to draft a censure resolution against him.
“HR 29 is all hat and no cattle," Rep. Tony Gonzales (R-TX) said in a statement to the Washington Examiner in February. "It would essentially prevent legal asylum claims such as migrants fleeing religious or political persecution from a safe haven in the United States. Not only is this radical position un-American; it would worsen our border crisis and incentivize human smugglers to continue sneaking people into our country illegally.”
Babin’s admission that the GOP will not come to the table for negotiations with Democrats suggests the GOP will face further delays on any possible movement despite support for HR 29 from nearly all Texas Republicans.
Previous Border Patrol Chief Rodney Scott left room for the possibility that Republicans could unite and work with Democrats on a solution.
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"There are rational people on both sides of the aisle that understand that if they can get together and push something forward, there could potentially be some change," said Scott, TPPF Distinguished Senior Fellow for Border Security, during an interview at the conference.
"Do I believe it's really going to happen? If I was a betting man, I don't think we're going to see any real significant change for another two years because the ideologues, if you will, in the current administration, just refuse to accept the facts of reality and they won't even talk about how chaotic the border is," he said.