North Carolina Republican Thom Tillis and Arizona Democrat Kyrsten Sinema have reportedly reached a framework deal on immigration reform they would like to push through in the lame duck session before Republicans take the House in January.
The deal would include a pathway to citizenship for two million Dreamers, or DACA recipients who were brought to the U.S. as children, resources to speed up asylum processing and removal of those who do not qualify, more funding for border officers, and a one-year extension of Title 42 until new processing centers are up and running, according to the Washington Post.
The deal concedes the pathway to citizenship and beefed-up due process rights for some immigrants to make Democrats happy and faster removal and strengthened border security for Republicans, though it’s not clear if 10 will be on board in the Senate.
The deal would need to make it through both the House and the Senate before the end of December. Come January, Republicans will take the House, and Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, who is running for speaker, has already vowed not to take up immigration reform until he deems the border secure.
Republicans to his right are even less friendly to such a deal.
‘This is a terrible deal that should be a non-starter in the House,’ Matt Tragesser, communications director to Rep. Andy Biggs, co-chair of the Border Security Caucus, told DailyMail.com. ‘Congressman Biggs does not support an amnesty of any kind.’
Per the deal, asylum processing facilities would serve as detention centers and more lawyers would be on hand to defend immigrants. But if migrants fail to establish a ‘credible fear’ in their initial interview, they would be removed more quickly.
It’s also not clear if 50 Democrats in the Senate would even support the bill. Many remain opposed to extending Title 42 and progressives in both chambers could balk at an expedited removal process.
Lawmakers have not made headway on such a politically contentious issue on immigration in decades.
Still, Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin, D-Ill., said Monday on Twitter he was reviewing the bill.
‘As author of the Dream Act, I applaud every good faith effort to give these deserving individuals a path to citizenship,’ Durbin said. ‘I’ve been in touch w/ my colleagues & will carefully review their proposal. I’m determined to do everything to help deliver a Christmas Miracle for Dreamers.’
Press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said the president had not seen the Tillis-Sinema deal, but was eager to push through a bipartisan immigration deal.
‘Let’s have a bipartisan agreement on immigration instead of doing political stunts, instead of doing what [Republicans] are doing – going to the border, not actually coming up with any real ideas about that. That’s where I will leave it.’
Jean-Pierre also said Biden will not be visiting the southern border on Tuesday during his trip to Arizona to visit a semi-conductor plant in Phoenix.
Anti-immigration group Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) tore into Tillis for working out the deal.
‘One would think that the utter disaster wrought by the Biden administration’s handling of the border, and our immigration system overall, would put an end to Republicans like Senator Tillis viewing an amnesty deal as the only path forward,’ press secretary Ron Kovach said in a statement.
‘It wouldn’t matter if he got $250 billion in funding or a 10 year Title 42 extension — unless Congress changes asylum and detention policies without amnesty involved, the crisis will continue.’