Immigrant rights groups are alerting President Biden of political consequences if he strikes a deal with Republicans to try to fix the chaos at the southern border, saying Latino voters won’t forgive him when he needs their votes next year.
The anger erupted after news that the White House is negotiating new border controls as part of Mr. Biden’s attempt to win a $106 billion national security spending bill. The White House reportedly has said it could sign a bill that includes new powers to expel illegal immigrants rather than allow them the chance to make iffy asylum claims.
Congressional negotiators are still working and no deal is final, but the direction of talks has Mr. Biden’s erstwhile allies up in arms.
Sen. Bob Menendez, New Jersey Democrat and one of the most senior Latinos on Capitol Hill, said it was “shameful” for Mr. Biden to even be entertaining the sort of deal that’s been reported, and said the way the White House has handled negotiations has insulted Latinos.
“Instead of honoring requests to meet with House and Senate members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus to strategize on a reasonable and effective path forward to address our challenges at the border, the White House ignored us — a slap in the face for the Latino and immigrant communities that we represent,” he said.
He also said the president will go down in history as the Asylum Denier in Chief — a call back to when President Barack Obama got labeled the Deporter in Chief by immigration groups.
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Vanessa Cardenas, executive director of America’s Voice, said if Mr. Biden signs off on such a deal it will “dampen enthusiasm among key voters, including young voters, progressives, Latinos … and others.”
She added, “If reports are true, this is a flat-out dumb path for the White House and Democratic leaders to travel, and they should immediately abandon it.”
NextGen America, which works to get younger Americans to register and vote, said it’s also irked by the talks.
“By following through on this deal, Democratic leaders will jeopardize the support of these young voters across the country, who believe immigrants deserve to be treated with dignity and respect,” said NexGen spokesman Antonio Arellano, who came to the U.S. as an illegal immigrant and won protection under the Obama-era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program.
For a president already facing slippage among some Democrats for his backing of Israel in its war with Hamas, opening another internal party war with young voters and Hispanics could be costly.
The White House has reportedly signaled it’s not only willing to revive an expulsion authority, similar to the Title 42 pandemic policy the Trump administration used to shut down the border in 2020, but also would entertain faster deportations and more detention of illegal immigrants.
Both of those would be significant reversals for the president, who has shut down detention facilities and reached record lows for deportations.
Mr. Biden has himself to blame for linking the border with his quest for Ukraine and Israel assistance. He included $14 billion to improve migrant processing in his $106 billion national security proposal, hoping the money would be enough to entice Republicans concerned about the record surge of illegal immigrants, terrorism suspects and fentanyl.
It wasn’t enough, but the link was made.
Republicans now say they cannot accept a spending bill that doesn’t force policy changes that would derail the flow of illegal immigrants.
“The U.S. border was a part of the president’s original request. So it’s been viewed, at least by some people in the White House, that this ought to be part of this overall effort,” said Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, Kentucky Republican.
The latest squabble in negotiations is over timing.
The House, controlled by Republicans, is slated to leave for its year-end break at the end of this week.
Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer ridiculed the Republicans, saying they were sending mixed signals about how seriously they took the border.
“Crying fire about the border one minute and then saying we should go home the next is the definition of unserious. An emergency is an emergency,” he said.
He also said Ukraine needs money from the U.S. now.
“Republicans should not be so content to throw their hands in the air and kick the can down the road. Our friends in Ukraine, after all, are not on our timeline. They don’t get a Christmas break on the battlefield,” the New York Democrat said.
• Stephen Dinan can be reached at sdinan@washingtontimes.com.