A growing number of Republicans, including former President Donald Trump, are warning Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell to not move forward with a disastrous immigration deal.
The Democrat-friendly deal would, among other things, increase green cards by 50,000 per year, award work permits to the grown children of H-1B holders, and grant immediate work permits to every illegal alien migrant released into the U.S. interior, according to Breitbart.
Speaking with Breitbart this weekend, Sens. Mike Braun, Marsha Blackburn, and Tim Scott all warned that the bill would only exacerbate the border crisis, not ameliorate it.
In fact, Braun outright asserted that the deal “does nothing to fix” the crisis.
“If it were H.R. 2, I think that would be something that would probably make sense,” he said, referencing a GOP-friendly border bill that remains stuck in the House despite a Republican speaker.
“If it’s something else, you’re just baselining it at a level that Democrats would probably be happy with in terms of number of crossings. Those are the ruses, the tricks that have been used by the establishment politicians for decades. We can’t fall for it,” the Hoosier senator said,” he added.
Blackburn went a step further, warning that the bill would make it even easier for illegal alien migrants to set up shop in the U.S.
“I have said all along I cannot support anything that would make illegal entry legal,” she said. “And that is what we see some of the Democrats really pushing for — they’re trying to find ways to make illegal immigration legal.”
“You cannot talk about border security without talking about fixing asylum, fixing the parole issue, not with the president waiving hundreds of thousands of people into the country every year,” she added.
Speaking last, Sen. Scott warned that the border crisis amounts to “the greatest invasion across our southern border in American history.”
“Don’t negotiate around the edges,” he said. “The thing that’s missing is confidence and what President Trump brings to the table in negotiating about border security.”
“We want someone at the helm that the American people say, I trust what he says about the border. That brings confidence and that’s what we need in Washington,” he added.
FYI, Scott endorsed Trump for president last week.
Speaking of Trump, he’s reportedly been trash-talking the “stupid” deal behind the scenes.
“Trump has recently told confidants in influential conservative media and political circles that ‘stupid’ Republicans, particularly ‘RINOs’ in the Senate, seem eager to hand Biden a win as he’s sunk in 2024 polls, and that GOP lawmakers shouldn’t be doing Biden any favors right now,” Rolling Stone reported last week, citing anonymous sources.
While it’s always wise to be wary of anonymous sources, in this case, the sources appear to be spot-on, because just last Wednesday, Trump expressed a similar sentiment on his social media platform, Truth Social.
“I do not think we should do a Border Deal, at all, unless we get EVERYTHING needed to shut down the INVASION of Millions & Millions of people, many from parts unknown, into our once great, but soon to be great again, Country!” he wrote.
“Also, I have no doubt that our wonderful Speaker of the House, Mike Johnson, will only make a deal that is PERFECT ON THE BORDER. Remember, without Strong Borders and Honest Elections, we don’t have a Country!!!” he added.
It turns out though that House Speaker Mike Johnson made a less-than-perfect deal, triggering outrage from other Republicans:
As for McConnell, thus far he and other top Senate Republicans have indicated they intend to move ahead full-bore with the deal.
“To those who think that if President Trump wins, which I hope he does, that we can get a better deal — you won’t,” Sen. Lindsey Graham told reporters last Wednesday. “You got to get 60 votes in the United States Senate.”
“To my Republican friends: To get this kind of border security without granting a pathway to citizenship is really unheard of. So if you think you’re going to get a better deal next time, in ’25, if President Trump’s president, Democrats will be expecting a pathway to citizenship for that. So to my Republican colleagues, this is a historic moment to reform the border,” he added.
However, McConnell and crew face growing opposition:
