A Weekend of Longshot Immigration Amendments
Wenos dias! Senators return to the Capitol today for a rare Friday sesh in the upper chamber of Congress. Here's what you need to know —
SCENE. Majority Leader Chuck Schumer is expected to keep Senators on the Hill this weekend to advance a request President Joe Biden made in October for $95 billion in emergency military assistance to Ukraine, Israel, and Taiwan.
VIBE. The White House is desperate for Senators to pass the foreign aid bill before meeting next Thursday with European leaders at the Munich Security Conference in Germany.
TIMING. Dupree predicts a 7pm ET vote tonight on a motion to start debate on the foreign aid bill, which would tee up final passage in the Senate for Wednesday.
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MIGRANTS. Gone from the Senate's foreign military bill is the doomed bipartisan immigration policy effort negotiated behind closed doors by Sens. Kyrsten Sinema (I-AZ), James Lankford (R-OK), and Chris Murphy (D-CT).
BORDER. Also dropped from the foreign aid bill is Biden's initial request to hire 1,300 new border agents and 1,600 new asylum officers, plus investments in fentanyl interdiction technology.
GRAHAM. The months-long bipartisan migrant policy effort was abandoned this week, but that's not stopping Lindsey Graham (R-SC) from writing his own longshot anti-immigrant amendment to the foreign aid bill.
🚨NEWS. Graham's amendment would cap parole at 10,000 total grants per year, strictly mandate custody for other border apprehensions, and expand 235(b) authorities, according to a source familiar with the proposal.
AFGHAN. An effort to resurrect from the failed bipartisan bill a citizenship pathway for up to 70,000 Afghan war allies is also expected, either in the Graham proposal or as a separate amendment, though it's unclear if 60 Senators will vote for it.
COTTON. Last July, Democratic Sens. Amy Klobuchar (MN) and Chris Coons (MD) saw a similar citizenship effort for Afghan war allies torpedoed by GOP Sen. Tom Cotton (AR) who claimed the proposal's screening protocols were insufficient before introducing his own competing bill.
SMART. TNR climate reporter Kate Aronoff on the Senate's bipartisan anti-immigrant effort —
"What’s particularly disturbing about this week’s ordeal is just how little the people on the receiving end of immigration policy seem to matter to the Democratic pundits and politicians looking to score political points off of it. Having already treated the lives of migrants as a poker chip to fund foreign wars, party leaders are ginning up an arms race with Republicans over who wants the toughest crackdown."
JOB. ProPublica is hiring an immigration reporter.