A prominent House leftist is attacking the Senate's bipartisan border security agreement and accusing her fellow Democrats, including President Biden, of having “caved” to Republicans.
“I am still reviewing the text of this proposal, which was built under the Republican hostage situation and refusal to fund aid to Ukraine without cruelty to immigrants,” Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., said in a statement Sunday by the night.
“However, it is already clear that it includes poisonous provisions like a new Title 42-like removal authority that will close the border and turn away asylum seekers without due process, a boon for cartels that prey on immigrants.”
The proposal aims to tighten current immigration and asylum laws while expediting eligible asylum applications. It would also give President Biden and the Department of Homeland Security authority to temporarily close the border when it becomes overwhelmed.
SENATE RELEASES LONG-ANTICIPATED BORDER LEGISLATION, IMPORTANT CHANGES IN ASYLUM
Top progressive Rep. Pramila Jayapal is attacking the bipartisan border deal between the Senate and the White House. (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images | Nicole Neri/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
“There is no doubt that we need significant changes to our immigration system. It is long overdue to modernize to allow for efficient and orderly processing of immigrants seeking to come to the United States and increase legal avenues for work and family visas , refugees”, and asylum seekers. However, this proposal does not include any of the thoughtful reforms to do that or to actually address the situation at the border in a humane way,” Jayapal said.
“Democrats have given in to these extremist views over and over again for 30 years. By refusing to make the structural changes in the Senate necessary to pass real reforms, by allowing MAGA Republicans to lie to the American public, and by refusing to stand up and defend immigrant communities, it appears that President Biden and Senate Democrats have fallen into the same trap again.”
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The border agreement revealed Sunday does not include any new legal path to citizenship for Dreamers, young people who were brought to the country illegally as children, something that has been a goal of Democrats for more than a decade.
Migrants walk along barbed wire after crossing the Rio Grande in Eagle Pass, Texas, on February 4, 2024. (Lokman Vural Elibol/Anadolu via Getty Images)
But it does add another 250,000 new immigrant visas over a five-year period, most of which are family visas and the remaining 90,000 are for workers.
The agreement also includes an accelerated path to permanent legal status for the thousands of Afghan allies who fled Afghanistan to the United States when the Taliban took power.
But Jayapal argued that it doesn't go far enough on the amnesty front and focuses too much on law enforcement.
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“The Senate will try to sell this so-called deal by pointing to some additional green cards and solutions for small groups of immigrants,” he said. “However, let's be clear: small adjustments to visas in exchange for closing the asylum system and causing more harm to vulnerable people seeking refuge in the United States is not serious reform and once again throws immigrants under the bus political”.
California Democratic Senator Alex Padilla also criticized the bill. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, File)
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Fox News Digital reached out to the White House for comment but did not immediately receive a response.
While he is one of the only Democratic voices in the House to have come out so strongly against the bill, there has already been some pushback in the Senate: both Sen. Alex Padilla, D-Calif., and Bob Menendez, D-N. J., also denounced the agreement.
