It’s not just conservatives who are balking at the new Senate border deal, with key Democrats and liberal pressure groups furious over what they see as President Biden’s surrender on immigration.
From coast to coast, immigrant rights groups labeled the new proposal “a disgrace,” “heartlessness” and “racism.”
And on Capitol Hill prominent Democrats said the legislation is a non-starter with them.
“We need real, humane immigration solutions that are centered in dignity and justice – NOT exclusionary, enforcement-only policies,” said Rep. Pramila Jayapal of Washington, the top Democrat on the House’s main immigration policy subcommittee.
Most of the attention in the wake of the bill’s release has been on GOP opposition, but Mr. Biden will need to staunch bleeding among his own troops if he wants to have a chance of the bill clearing the Senate.
“Major chunks of this legislation read like an enforcement wish list from the Trump administration, and directly clash with the most basic tenets of our asylum system,” said Sen. Robert Menendez, New Jersey Democrat.
SEE ALSO: Speaker Johnson warns McConnell: Senate border deal a ‘waste of time’
The deal, announced Sunday night, at least symbolically embraces a more enforcement-heavy approach to the chaos at the southern border. It would create a new power to expel illegal immigrants, raise the bar for making asylum claims and expand the government’s deportation machinery.
It also includes government-funded lawyers for illegal immigrant children, envisions hundreds of thousands more guest workers and 50,000 new permanent legal immigrants a year, and delays border wall construction.
The legislation also affirms Mr. Biden’s expansive use of “parole” powers to welcome Afghans, Venezuelans and other unauthorized migrants from certain favored nationalities into the U.S. in circumvention of the usual immigration and border policies.
Immigrant rights activists said those are victories, but not enough to overcome the increase in detention and deportation capacity and the stiffer asylum rules.
“This bill is a disgrace and a stain on America’s reputation as a defender of human rights,” said Murad Awawdeh, executive director of the New York Immigration Coalition. “President Biden has turned his back on our communities, capitulating to the cynical political games of MAGA Republicans simply to move forward with foreign aid.”
And Angelica Salas, executive director of the Los Angeles-based Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights, said those who wrote the bill embraced “denial, racism and heartlessness.”
SEE ALSO: Border experts divided on whether Senate deal will end the crisis
“The immigration provisions of the supplemental bill should be aggressively condemned, and we ask Congress to vote ‘NO’ on this cruel proposal,” she said.
Sen. Alex Padilla, California Democrat, complained that Hispanic lawmakers and border-state Democrats were left out of the negotiations entirely.
“The deal includes a new version of a failed Trump-era immigration policy that will cause more chaos at the border, not less,” he said.
Other Democrats said they would hold their nose and back the deal.
Sen. Richard Durbin of Illinois, who for more than a decade has been one of Democrats’ key immigration figures, gave the bill a tepid embrace. He said it “may help” improve the system, but falls short of what he wants.
Still, he said, if it’s coupled with nearly $100 billion in spending for Ukraine, Israel and other national security needs, it may be worth it.
“What we do has consequences — global and historic consequences,” Mr. Durbin said. “To my colleagues on the other side of the aisle: think long and hard about showing weakness to despots like Vladimir Putin. Democracy and the rule of law is worth the battle.”
• Stephen Dinan can be reached at sdinan@washingtontimes.com.