Despite President Biden's and Democrats' multitude of campaign promises revolving around immigration and amnesty for illegal aliens, little has occurred within Congress as much of the platform, particularly when it comes to amnesty, was unable to muster the votes (or pass Senate rules) to be sent to the President's desk.
Last year the House of Representatives was able to pass the American Dream and Promise Act, which would grant amnesty to more than 3.5 million illegal aliens who qualified for either the Dream amnesty or Temporary Protected Status, and the Farm Workforce Modernization Act, which would grant amnesty to more than 1 million illegal farm workers. Both bills passed with bipartisan support. However, both of these bills failed in the Senate.
The nation also faced an even more significant amnesty threat when Democrats turned their attention to the Build Back Better package they hoped to pass through a process known as budget reconciliation. The process doesn't require the standard 60 votes to pass in the Senate, but its provisions must pertain to budgetary matters. Thankfully, the Senate Parliamentarian determined that the proposed amnesties would violate the Senate's budget reconciliation rules.
Now, however, worries have grown over the possibility of Democrats setting their sights on amnesty during the lame-duck session between midterm elections and the inauguration of the new Congress. Included in these fears were amnesties for approximately 190,000 children of foreign guest workers in the National Defense Authorization Act and about 80,000 Afghan evacuees who were paroled by the Biden Administration into the U.S. and do not qualify for either refugee status or the Special Immigrant Visas.
Thankfully, the evenly divided Senate has yet to pass its version of the NDAA, and there is currently not enough support for the Afghan bill, but both of these issues could come up during the lame-duck session.
Another concern for the lame duck is the omnibus spending bill. Leaders hope to pass a bill during the lame duck to fund the government through the end of next September. This legislation would establish spending levels for both border security and interior enforcement. And since it's a must-pass measure, it could serve as a vehicle for both the Afghan bill and other amnesties.
Nevertheless, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy made some recent statements that ease the fears of lame-duck amnesties, stating if Republicans win the House in November, as they are expected to do, a GOP-led Congress will not approve any so-called "comprehensive" amnesty deal before the border chaos is fixed.
Breitbart News accurately points out, "Since January 2021, President Joe Biden's pro-migration deputies have pulled in an additional 2.5 million illegal migrants for jobs and housing needed by Americans, while also insisting that the border is secure. His deputies also insist they are following the law as they expand many loopholes to legalize the many wage-cutting, rent-spiking economic migrants flooding into Americans' society."
Rep. McCarthy recognizes this fact and sees the effect it is having on those who will line up at the polls in November. According to a recent Harvard CAPS-Harris Poll survey, immigration is still entrenched as one of midterm voters' top three concerns, with 90% of expected voters surveyed saying immigration is "very important" or "somewhat important." Additionally, 46% of respondents said immigration is more likely to persuade them to vote Republican in the upcoming elections.
With this in mind, McCarthy recently made the bold statement that the House GOP is opposed to trading a pathway to citizenship or other forms of amnesty, particularly for DACA recipients, for the promise of increased border Security. This is a trade-off that Republicans and Democrats have envisioned for years.
Rep. McCarthy stated:
I believe Biden has destroyed our border so badly. You can't tie the two [amnesty and border security]. You've got to just go fix the border to start out before you can deal with immigration. I just think it's too far broken. I don't think anyone's going to believe you if you tie the two together.
Punchbowl News reports that "this kind of hawkishness" could prompt big business and open-border lobbying groups to push for an immigration deal in the lame duck session. However, Punchbowl admits, "This would likely be a long shot – at best. Hard to see how Republicans would go for that deal having just won an election with an [anti-amnesty] platform."
