Republicans PASS border bill with just hours until Title 42 expires

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy backed votes to pass a sweeping immigration and border security bill after hiccups over the package’s E-Verify and cartel provisions.

The bill passed 219 to 213 on Thursday — the same day as Title 42, the Covid-era public health rule that allows immediate eviction, expires.

Two Republicans – Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., and Rep. John Duarte, R-Calif., – voted against the bill due to e-Verify requirements.

The House package would bring back a number of Trump-era immigration policies, including Remain in Mexico, which requires those seeking asylum to wait in Mexico while their U.S. asylum application is processed.

President Biden has already pledged to veto the legislation, though he won’t be given the chance to do so, as it won’t be up for discussion in the Democrat-led Senate.

The bill passed by the House would also resume construction of the southern border wall, make it easier for minors crossing without their parents to be deported, and allow migrant families to be held in detention for longer periods in the hopes of an end to catch and release policies.

The legislation was passed just hours before Title 42 expired – as border officials have been trying to cross 10,000 immigrants a day for the past three days, a record number.

‘This is only going to get worse. I get texts all day at home. Photos of the people lining up to get into the state,” Representative Juan Ciscomani, an Arizona Republican who immigrated to the US from Mexico as a child, told DailyMail.com.

US Customs and Border Protection currently has about 26,000 migrants in custody amid a rush to process the arrivals, several thousand over capacity.

Border Patrol officers and the Department of Public Safety gather migrants trying to cross the border in Eagle Pass, Texas, on May 11

The bill would end Biden’s use of humanitarian parole directly targeting certain nationalities, which the administration broadly uses for Venezuelans, Haitians, Cubans and Nicaraguans. It would mandate the use of E-Verify for hiring employees and only accept asylum applications for those who do not cross the border illegally.

It would also limit federal funds for non-governmental organizations (NGOs) that support migrants at the border, spending more money on border security technology and hiring more border agents. The bill mandates extensive biometric and DNA collection from migrants and imposes new fees on asylum seekers.

House Democratic Whip Katherine Clark’s office circulated a notice ahead of the vote calling the bill the “Child Deportation Act” and urging supporters to vote “no.”

She said it will make it “almost impossible” for asylum seekers to pass ports of entry while they “do nothing” to stop the delay of fentanyl across the border.

She said the E-Verify provision for U.S. businesses nationwide “would lead to chaos in the agricultural industry and seasonal workers.”

Libertarian and agrarian Republicans expressed concern about the effect of requiring E-Verify to verify the immigration status of workers on the country’s agriculture and food supply.

“Unfortunately, this bill would harm many families who work in our valley and cause problems for our food producers,” Duarte said in a statement explaining his “no” vote.

But other farmland Republicans, such as Iowa Rep. Ashley Hinson, said they were satisfied with the E-Verify requirements.

“I don’t have a problem with it,” Tennessee Representative Tim Burchett told DailyMail.com. “If you’re doing something illegal, you probably have something to worry about.”

On Thursday, an estimated 10,000 migrants made their way to the southern border

Border officials are overwhelmed by the number of migrants illegally crossing the border awaiting the end of Title 42

Newhouse said he would vote in favor of the legislation after “many discussions with the House leadership” and secured a concession that if a final boundary bill was ever sent to President Biden’s office, it would include amendments that would change the H. -2A agricultural visa reform, removing the requirements. be for seasonal work only and offer wage reform to ensure H-2A wages are “more market-compliant.”

The bill was also amended to change the language of foreign terrorists after Rep. Dan Crenshaw warned that the provision — which calls for President Biden to designate cartels as foreign terrorists — would only give migrants more prestige to seek asylum.

The Texan Republican has said the bill doesn’t do enough to crack down on cartels in other ways.

The House leadership was eager to push through the party line bill that will not pass the Senate the day Title 42 expires. Border officials had expected a migrant attack to rush across the border without the pandemic-era public health policy that allows for immediate deportation.

“What the Republicans are talking about this week is not substantive. It is extreme and reuses the same failed policies of the previous administration that did nothing to improve our situation on the southern border,” Democratic Caucus Chairman Pete Aguilar of California said at a news conference.

Meanwhile, House Democrats unveiled their own immigration and border bill on Wednesday — the US Citizenship Act.

In the Senate, the chairman of the judiciary, Dick Durbin, promised to pass a “bipartite” immigration bill on Thursday.

The ‘House Republicans’ ‘proposal’ for our immigration challenge is not serious. It’s a partisan nonstarter. We’ve passed bipartisan immigration reform before — and we need to do it again. I’m introducing a bill tomorrow — a serious one — to get us started,” he tweeted.