“This is a unique moment in time. It’s an opportunity to get some conservative border policy,” Minority Whip John Thune (R-S.D.) said.
Speaker Mike Johnson is publicly and privately panning the Senate’s ongoing border and immigration negotiations. Senate Republicans are reminding him that it’s the best deal he’ll ever get.
Republicans senators said on Tuesday that they see only worse opportunities ahead to craft a border bill that can pass, given that Democrats who run the Senate and White House are now considering major changes to asylum policy, new expulsion authorities and perhaps even putting limits on presidential parole authority. If Republicans try to wait for a better deal after November’s election, senators say, they could end up with GOP control over Congress and the White House — but Democrats who are in no mood to deal on the issue.
“There’s absolutely no way that we would get the kind of border policy that’s been talked about right now with a Republican majority in the Senate, unless we get a 60-vote majority, which isn’t going to happen … there aren’t many Democrats that are going to be available,” said Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.), the minority whip. “This is a unique moment in time. It’s an opportunity to get some conservative border policy.”
Thune described the current situation at the nation’s southern border as a “national security emergency.” If House Republicans slam the door on an immigration deal, some in the Senate GOP worry that won’t exactly jibe with their message that the border is a five-alarm fire.
Republicans contend that the domestic national security risks of surging migration are just as important as foreign aid. Over the past two months, that argument has become the reason that the GOP won’t move forward on Ukraine aid — compelling reluctant Democrats to the table in a bid to shake loose President Joe Biden’s $100 billion-plus national security spending proposal.
Now senators and the Biden administration are discussing a deal that would restrict migration and beef up border funding, while also sending billions of dollars to Ukraine. Republicans spent months building a messaging campaign focused on what they see as a growing border crisis. Some of them, including Texas’ own GOP governor, might be more interested in a compromise solution than delaying until next year.