Senators Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) and Krysten Sinema (D-Ariz.) have revived bipartisan amnesty talks during the lame-duck congressional session in an effort to test the waters on immigration "reform" before Republicans retake the House of Representatives in January.
Sources familiar with the negotiations have told Fox News that the Senators have reached a white-paper draft of their intended legislation that would grant amnesty to millions (2 million) of illegal aliens already protected by the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program as well as implement certain "border security measures."
Fox News reports, "A Senate aide stressed that the discussions are in a very early stage and that the senators are circulating the framework to see if there is interest and a potential agreement. Another said that it was incorrect at this stage to describe the draft as a 'deal.'"
According to the sources familiar with the negotiations, the supposed border security measures would include keeping the already sparsely used Title 42 for another year, hiring more Border Patrol agents, and creating regional processing centers, to rubber stamp more migrant asylum claims. In addition, the potential bill "would also include resources for detention, deportation and expedited removal of [some criminal] illegal aliens."
If a deal is reached between the Senators, funding for the bill is expected to cost at least $25 billion and could expand beyond $40 billion, a total significantly higher than any previously proposed DACA amnesty.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said last month in response to a federal appeals court's ruling that blocked further DACA enrollments after finding the program unconstitutional:
We have a population that is not reproducing on its own with the same level that it used to. The only way we're going to have a great future in America is if we welcome and embrace immigrants, the dreamers and all of them, because our ultimate goal is to help the dreamers, but get a path to citizenship for all 11 million or however many undocumented there are here. And we will be pursuing that in the next Senate.
Nevertheless, some Democrats have scoffed at offering menial border security measures in exchange for a massive amnesty. Similarly, Republicans have renounced the idea of any amnesty at all.
House GOP Leader Kevin McCarthy has called any form of amnesty a "non-starter" in the next congress, "No amnesty," McCarthy told Fox News in October.
Fox News adds:
Former acting Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Commissioner Mark Morgan and former acting Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Director Tom Homan released a statement describing the proposal as "nothing more than amnesty, cloaked with the fig leaf of 'more funding' for Border Patrol."
"In reality, this proposal would do nothing except encourage more families around the world to put their children, of all ages, in the hands of the cartels, enriching these blood-thirsty and savage organizations, driving even-higher numbers of unaccompanied minors to the border, and further overwhelming an already besieged Border Patrol," they said.
You can read the complete article at Fox News.
