Business, Progressives Stall Omnibus to Kill Title 42 Border Barrier

biden migrants
Mario Tama/SAUL LOEB/AFP via Getty Images
Neil Munro

A business-backed coalition of progressive groups helped to stall the 2023 omnibus funding bill the night before the Friday deadline, rather than let Democratic Senators face a public vote on preserving the Title 42 border barrier.

The Title 42 barrier is set to be lifted in the new few days, so opening the U.S. border to a mass inflow of economic migrants.

“URGENT ACTION: The Senate is about to vote on Title 42, which has illegally prevented asylum seekers from seeking safety,” said an evening tweet by the pro-migration ACLU. “We all need to stop what we’re doing and tell our senators NOW: Vote NO. ”

The demand was backed up by Todd Schulte, the president of FWD.us, a  group of West Coast investors who are leading and funding the progressive push for maximum migration into Americans’ workplaces and housing.

The breadth of investors who founded and funded FWD.us was hidden from casual visitors to the group’s website. But copies exist at other sites. The 2013 founders included Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, Microsoft founder Bill Gates, and investors such as John Doerr at Kleiner Perkins, Matt Cohler at Benchmark, and Breyer Capital CEO Jim Breyer.

The ACLU, as well as several groups backed by FWD.us, are part of the Welcome With Dignity coalition, which is also pushing for the removal of the Title 42 barrier. The coalition says “We envision a United States that welcomes all people seeking safety with dignity.”

The coalition released a telephone script for supporters to call Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, who has strongly supported the inflow of more cheap workers and shared-occupancy renters into New York City:

Currently, Senator [Mike] Lee [R-UT] is attempting to include an amendment (No. 6563) to the FY23 appropriations bill that would decimate the right to seek asylum at the border, by requiring the reinstatement of the mass expulsions policy that has resulted in widespread violence against refugees, like Title 42. This amendment is likely to get a vote at a 50-vote threshold and we need your help to not allow this amendment to get a vote.

The 2023 funding bill needs to be passed by Friday — or else Congress will have to vote to continue the 2022 budget until the disagreement over Title 42 is resolved in the new year by the GOP-led House and the Democrat-led Senate.

If Democrats had a solid caucus ready to vote against the Lee amendment, they could vote it down with the aid of Vice-President Kamala Harris.

But that vote would leave all Democrats facing attack ads in 2024 blaming them for the tsunami of poor job-seeking migrants that is expected once Biden and his deputies lift the Title 42 barrier.

The flood could deliver millions of migrants — or more than one migrant for every American child born in 2023. The wave of migrants would cut wages, spike rents, and crowd schools and local aid programs that are needed by tens of millions of Americans already suffering from high inflation.

So Schumer is trying to avoid a majority vote, or schedule a vote that would require a 60-vote margin to pass, so enabling several at-risk Democrats to fake support for the Title 42 barrier.

“Mike Lee wants approval of Title 42 amendment set at a 51-vote threshold,” said a tweet from CNN. Democrats “are worried he’d have the votes for adoption to omnibus. …. Schumer could shut down debate but that’d require 60 votes.”

The migrant flood is already rising because Biden’s border chief, the pro-migration, Cuban-born immigrant Alejandro Mayorkas, refuses to apply the Title 42 barriers to countries that still refuse to accept deported migrants.

Mayorkas has not released the migration numbers for November. But in October, he allowed 152,000 migrants to cross and used Title 42 to block only 78,000 migrants, or just one-third of the total. In addition, Mayorkas has done little to stop roughly 50,000 migrants from sneaking across the border each month.

Democrats complained about the voting dispute that delayed the passage of the 2023 omnibus bill. The bill includes little to protect the U.S. border — but at least $3 billion to move migrants to U.S. workplaces, and $45 billion to help Ukraine protect its border from Russian infantry.

Pro-migration advocates are hoping the GOP Senators will leave town, so allowing the Democrats to win a majority vote. One advocate attached his message to a fake Twitter account satirizing Sen. Mike Lee.

But many GOP Senators are speaking out against Biden’s refusal to protect American families from a flood of cheap migrant workers.

Sen. James Lankford (R-KS) pushed for a majority vote:

This call for a Title 42 vote is backed up by establishment Republicans, including Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) and Sen. Mitt Romney (R-UT):

Immigration reformers, such as NumbersUSA, called for GOP Senators to fight for the Title 42 barrier:

House Republicans are also warning about a failure to preserve the Title 42 barrier:

 

 

 

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