2024 Border Legislation

[Ken]

Ken,

This is a state matter not a federal matter. State law applies. States have far more leeway to decide their own laws than the federal government does.

Federal immigration laws are essentially irrelevant. Texas could pass a law saying illegal aliens are trespassing, including ones who have not yet formally been granted asylum. The fact they say a few magic words does not magically make them legal aliens.

Most notably, Texas’s law simply says entering other than at a legal port of entry is a crime. How is this a problem? Why can’t they just enter at a legal port of entry?

And then what? Even if they can prove they broke Texas law, Texas prisons are already overcrowded. What is Texas going to do next? Are they going to burden local counties, local courts, and local prosecutors with the task of detaining these people in jails that don't exist and then holding expensive jury trials to convict them? And then hold them indefinitely? Life sentences for trespass? Do you know what it costs to hold a prisoner for even a year? It costs far more to imprison someone than educate someone because you need guards 24/7/365 plus you need to feed them and provide medical care.

Remember, Mexico isn't going to take them. 95% are not Mexican. What is Texas going to do with them? Burn up their state budget housing migrants in prison?

Like I said, they haven't thought this through. Which is typical of Texas.

[Josh]

OK, Ken.

[temporal1]

Now that voters in blue cities+state understand that Texas and other border states are THEIR borders, there may be significant change in border policies. All 50 states should empathize with the border states, their problems are U.S. problems.

In the past, all 50 states have volunarily+generously helped with (East Coast) disasters. Border states should enjoy similar support.

i’m not sure why it took Texas Gov Abbott sending illegals to blue cities to get the message across.
but, his actions brought awareness.

i’m not sure what’s ahead. i’m sorry it took such drastic measures to wake people up.

there may be significant changes.
it’s been so unfair for the border states to be so overburdened with this, all these decades.

Chicago and NYC voters need to understand, it’s not always “all about them.” 50 states, not 1 or 2.

Chicago / “Brighton Park residents protest, march Friday against plans for migrant camp”
https://abc7chicago.com/migrants-chicag ... /14038630/

[temporal1]

Gov Abbott is amazing. In his trusty wheelchair. God bless him.

Who can honestly say they can imagine being governor of such a state so burdened as his, all these years?
What a heavy burden.

[Ken]

OK, Ken.

What am I wrong about? How is Texas actually going to enforce this new law if Mexico isn't going to take these immigrants off their hands? Is it just going to be "catch and release"? Remember, Texas's jails and prisons are already overcrowded and understaffed. They going to release large numbers of domestic criminals to make way for all the immigrants they plan to arrest and imprison? https://www.texasmonthly.com/news-polit ... e-inmates/

[Ernie]

John Kirby in his White House Press Conference today says Biden cannot do more at the border until Congress authorizes more funding for law enforcement and courts.
https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-roo ... n-kirby-6/

I understand that some people think this authorization and funding is not needed.

Can someone explain why or why not you believe one or the other? from a legislative or an executive point of view?

[Ken]

Here is a recent Washington Post article in which the administration says they will need to release thousands of detainees without additional funding. Many detainees in the queue for deportation are being held in private detention facilities and without extra funding they will have to shut them down and release the detainees that they are currently holding.

Also they don't have enough immigration judges which are necessary BOTH for deportations, and to hear asylum claims. You can't deport someone without a hearing and a deportation order from an immigration court.

https://wapo.st/3TQ1UoZ

After border bill failure, ICE considers mass releases to close budget gap

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has drafted plans to release thousands of immigrants and slash its capacity to hold detainees after the failure of a Senate border bill that would have erased a $700 million budget shortfall, according to four officials at ICE and the Department of Homeland Security.

The bipartisan border bill that Republican lawmakers opposed last week would have provided $6 billion in supplemental funding for ICE enforcement operations. The bill’s demise has led ICE officials to begin circulating an internal proposal to save money by releasing thousands of detainees and cutting detention levels from 38,000 beds to 22,000 — the opposite of the enforcement increases Republicans say they want.

The budget crunch and the proposal also present a difficult scenario for the Biden administration heading into the spring, when illegal crossings at the southern border are expected to spike again. On Tuesday, House Republicans voted to impeach Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas over his border record, and immigration remains President Biden’s worst-rated issue in polls.

Former president Donald Trump, the 2024 Republican front-runner in the presidential campaign, boasted of his role in influencing lawmakers to block the border bill, which he said would have benefited Biden politically.

DHS could try to cover the funding gap at ICE by reprogramming money from the Coast Guard, the Transportation Security Administration or other agencies within the department. But such moves are contentious, and ICE officials say the $700 million deficit is the largest projected shortfall the agency has faced in recent memory.

Some of the proposed cost savings would occur as deportations reduce ICE detention levels, but much of it would have to happen through the mass release of detainees, said the officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss internal deliberations.

Erin Heeter, a DHS spokesperson, said Congress has “chronically underfunded” the department’s “vital missions on the southwest border.”

“Most recently, Congress rejected the bipartisan national security bill out of hand, which will put at risk DHS’s current removal operations,” Heeter said in a statement. “A reduction in ICE operations would significantly harm border security, national security, and public safety.”

[Grace]

When Biden took office in January 2021, he signed 90+ executive orders that reversed Trump Immigration Policies. The result of Biden’s actions was an open border that has created a border crisis with 7.2 million illegal immigrants entering the country, since he took office. This fact has overwhelmed cities and border states all over the country. Just ask Biden supporter, New York City's Mayor Adams. He would like to change the status of NYC, to a non-sanctuary city.

On January 31, of this year Biden made the claim that he did all he could about the Border crisis and there was no more he could do without legislation. Now that the nation is five months away from an election he has changed his rhetoric. Yesterday he came out and purported that he will sign an executive order to address the crisis, a crisis he created.

Biden and the Democrats have an ulterior motive, in allowing the 7.2 million illegal immigrants to come in the country, since Biden came into office. Illegal Immigrants are counted in the census. They use the census to determine how many congregational seats states get. It determines how many electoral votes a state gets. Illegal immigrants impact the elections in favor of Democrats. People are leaving blue states and cities because of high taxes, high crimes, etc. Democrats need population centers in sanctuary cities to replace those that are leaving.

Earlier this year Chuck Schumer reintroduced H.R.2 - Secure the Border Act.

The reason Republican’s rejected the bill was because it did not address the border crisis at all. Republicans rejected it, because it would have codified or put into Federal law, Biden’s “Catch and Release”. When an illegal is caught, they would be released. Like the illegal criminal how killed Laken Riley and just last week the two police in New York.

The bill would have normalized the entry of 5,000 illegals a day or 1.8 million a year. It would have put into law that illegals get a tax funded attorney. The “Catch and Release” and the 1.8 million a year law would be codified into law as well, no matter who the future presidents are. Those are just a few reasons. The laws would have been in perpetuity.

Another issue the Republicans had with the bill, was the fact the bill had 20 million going towards the border and 60 million for Ukraine. That fact showed how much Biden cares about the country and how much he is willing to pay to a foreign leader who has dictator-like policies.

[Szdfan]

So…this happened yesterday.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/amp/rcna155426

Biden signs executive action drastically tightening border

Facing mounting political pressure over the migrant influx at the southern border, President Joe Biden on Tuesday signed an executive action that will temporarily shut down asylum requests once the average number of daily encounters tops 2,500 between official ports of entry, according to a senior administration official.

The shutdown would go into effect immediately since that threshold has already been met, a senior administration official said. The border would reopen only once that number falls to 1,500. The president’s order would come under the Immigration and Nationality Act sections 212(f) and 215(a) suspending entry of noncitizens who cross the southern border into the United States unlawfully.

Senior administration officials said Tuesday in a call with reporters that “individuals who cross the southern border unlawfully or without authorization will generally be ineligible for asylum, absent exceptionally compelling circumstances, unless they are accepted by the proclamation.”

The officials said that migrants who don’t meet the requirement of having a "credible fear" when they apply for asylum will be immediately removable, and they “anticipate that we will be removing those individuals in a matter of days, if not hours,”

[Josh]

Makes sense. An election is in 5 months, and a lot of voters are very upset about what's happened at the border for the last 3½ years.