HOUSE APPROVES CURBS ON ASYLUM SEEKERS
President promises to veto legislation backed by GOP
House Republicans passed a bill Thursday to build more U.S.-Mexico border wall and impose new restrictions on asylum seekers, creating a hard-line counter to President Joe Biden’s policies just as migrants are amassing along the border with the end of coronavirus pandemic restrictions.
The bill has virtually no chance of becoming law. Democrats, who have a narrow hold on the Senate, have decried the aggressive measures in the bill as “cruel” and “anti-immigrant,” and Biden has already promised he would veto it.
The legislation passed 219-213, with all present Democrats and two Republicans voting against it.
The House GOP pointedly voted on the bill the same day as the expiration of Title 42, a public health emergency rule that allowed border authorities to quickly return many migrants who crossed the border illegally.
Biden has conceded that the southern border will be “chaotic for a while” as migrants weigh whether to cross and U.S. officials use a new set of policies that aim to clamp down on illegal immigration while offering more legal pathways.
Republicans have sought to slam Biden for the increase in illegal immigration during his tenure. Passing the bill would ensure House GOP lawmakers can say they did their part to deliver on a campaign promise to secure the border.
House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Bakersfield, called the package “the strongest border security bill this country has ever seen,” saying in a speech on the House floor that “meanwhile, we are seeing a very different record from President Biden.”
It took months for Republicans to push the bill through the House amid sometimes public feuds between Republican lawmakers. Even as the bill neared final form Wednesday, it had to be amended to appease concerns from the House Freedom Caucus and other lawmakers.
The bill represents a compromise in the Republican conference between mainstream lawmakers, who wanted to focus on beefing up border enforcement, and hardline conservatives, who want to see drastic changes to U.S. asylum and immigration law.
U.S. and international law give migrants the right to seek asylum from political, religious or racial persecution, but conservatives say many people take advantage of the current system to live and work in the U.S. while they wait for their asylum claim to be processed in court.