Republicans’ Immigration Reform Bill Faces Establishment Minefield

A group of Brazilian migrants make their way around a gap in the U.S.-Mexico border in Yum
AP Photo/Eugene Garcia
Neil Munro

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s GOP has moved the party’s promised immigration reform bill through the judiciary committee, but it now faces a minefield on the House floor placed by Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) and a bloc of pro-migration, business-backed, establishment Republican legislators.

Massie announced his obstacle to the 137-page bill — a section that requires employers to use the federal E-Verify database to verify that job-seeking are not illegal migrants:

Massie’s objection to the E-Verify program is an ideological stance, where he is “seeking some kind of Utopia rather than trying to get the best arrangement you can [realistically] get in the actually existing world,” said Mark Krikorian, the director of the Center for Immigration Studies. “It is Debate Club libertarianism,” not practical policies in search of plausible gains, he said.

But Massie’s objection is just one of many GOP-laid landmines that the Republican leaders must clear before they can pass the bill from the House.

“It’s not a perfect bill,” said Robert Law, the director of the Center for Homeland Security at the America First Policy Institute:

It’s a messaging bill for the next election cycle, which shows the American people that Republicans have solutions to solve the border crisis …. the American people will have a clear understanding when it comes time to casting their ballots.

The bill’s actual measures and details are a compromise of the parties’ rival wings, he said:

There has been clear concessions made to donor-class Republicans, but all told, the legislative package is a really serious border security proposal that calls the Biden administration’s bluff that they need new laws in order to solve the humanitarian crisis at the border … This is a serious solution compared to what the Democrats did in the previous Congress, which was just to offer a mass amnesty bill. That was such an absurd initiative that it didn’t even receive a vote.

Getting the legislation passed through the entire House is a strategic battle for the future of the GOP.

RELATED: Thousands of Migrants Processed in 1 U.S. Border Town in 1 Night:

Brownsville PD via Storyful

A huge bloc of GOP voters turned out on election day on November 22 to get effective immigration reform — and if Rep. Kevin McCarthy’s GOP fails, those voters may stay home in 2024.

The judiciary committee’s bill passed the committee on April 19. But GOP leaders are negotiating with various legislators to ensure majority passage in May.

The judiciary bill must also be merged with a pending bill being drafted by the House Committee on Homeland Security, chaired by Rep. Mark Green (R-TN).

If the joint bill passes the House, it likely will be model legislation for the 2024 GOP presidential candidate.

That means the two-bill package will be either written into regulations by a GOP-run White House in 2025, be implemented by appropriators by a GOP Congress in 2026, or even partway passed into law by the Senate.

Any of those gains would be a victory for voters after four years of Biden’s effort to flood the nation’s labor and housing markets with roughly one migrant for every American birth.

The combined bill, if not gutted, will send “a very robust, strong, pro-enforcement, pro-American worker, pro-American society piece of legislation,” said Law.

 

 

Rival Factions

Business groups are using their clout in the GOP caucus to remove some of the most important curbs in the bills.

They have a lot of clout because the GOP has a tiny majority of fewer than 10 members. If even just five Republicans vote with unified Democrats, they can stop a bill — although at the cost of alienating the voters that GOP legislators need to keep their majority.

That legislative sabotage is possible because many GOP members prioritize the interests of employers and donors — often above the interest of ordinary Americans outside their district.

For example, Rep. Tony Gonzales from Texas says he wants any immigration bill to let employers import endless low-wage migrants for the jobs that would otherwise go to ordinary, better-paid Americans.

That goal is being delivered by Biden, who is using the parole and asylum loopholes — plus the legal immigration and visa-worker programs — to import roughly one migrant for every American birth in 2022.

On April 19, the New York Times provided Gonzales with its loudspeaker:

The border bill “has a long way to go before it hits prime time,” Representative Tony Gonzales, Republican of Texas, told reporters this week, warning that it would be foolhardy for G.O.P. leaders to press ahead with immigration legislation that stood no chance of passing Congress, given the party’s slim majority in the House.

“In this Congress, five votes is 100,” he said.

Gonzales is backed by other business-backed Republican legislators, including Rep. Maria Salazar (R-FL) and Rep. Juan Ciscomani (R-AZ),

In contrast, the bill is being pushed by mainstream Republicans, including Rep. Tom McClintock (R-CA), Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX), and Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH), the chairman of the House judiciary committee.

The reform bill is backed also by pro-reform groups, including the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR).

“The much-needed Border Security and Enforcement Act clearly defines the Executive Branch’s responsibilities when it comes to preventing people from entering the country illegally, detaining and removing those who do, and ending the rampant abuse of our asylum system,” said FAIR president Dan Stein, adding:

The bill [also] aims to rein in the Biden administration’s abuse of parole authority, under which it is allowing tens of thousands of illegal migrants to enter the United States every month on the flimsy pretense that they will be removed at some point in the future,

We urge Speaker McCarthy to bring this critical legislation to the floor for final passage by the full House of Representatives as soon as possible.

These pro-reform groups strongly support the E-Verify measure that is opposed by Massie:

Democrats are eager to stop the flagship measure — and they are trying to widen GOP splits over the details of the bill.

For example, Democrats are playing up objections by Gonzales from Texas, who has complained about new curbs on the asylum floods caused by Biden’s border chief, Alejandro Mayorkas.

Democrats are also trying to split the GOP by spotlighting the planned E-Verify curbs on the hiring of illegals by farm companies. Those curbs are being denounced by Rep. Dan Newhouse (R-WA), who owns several orchards in Washington state, according to the New York Times:

It’s necessary to “have a legal pathway for people to come in and be able to work,” said Representative Dan Newhouse, Republican of Washington State, himself a farmer, in an interview. He noted that Congress would have to authorize new immigrant visas alongside mandating E-Verify to avoid a devastating blow to the agricultural sector.

Current law allows Newhouse and other farmers to import an unlimited number of H-2A visa workers at wages set by the federal government. Many foreign workers are treated very badly in the poorly managed program. But U.S. farmers also say the H-2A wages are too high — and are pushing for legislation that would recruit and pay foreign workers with slices of Americans’ citizenship instead of farmers’ revenues.

As expected, Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA), slammed the E-Verify plans in the hope that it would bolster opposition by GOP members such as Newhouse and Rep. Mike Simpson:

Amid the pressure, many GOP members are now zigzagging between business donors and the GOP’s voters while the GOP leaders try to rally them for a near-unanimous vote.

The zigzagging allows the members to display support for both sides, so minimizing their political risks. But McCarthy wants to pass the bill, so every member will need to align themselves with voters or the donors, sooner or later.

Yet the GOP members can cover their track by declaring public support for a reform bill while quietly objecting to a minor element.

Business groups can block or neutralize useful legislation if they can use their economic clout to create a yes-but-not-this-bill caucus of 10 to 15 legislators.

Speaking of donor clout, Gonzales’ mandated reports show that the $9 trillion Blackrock investment fund has been his biggest donor.

But many GOP members face tough pressure from local employers who provide the medium-size donations that fill out most campaign accounts. For example, Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC) told the Washington Post that she wants more imported seasonal workers to aid employers:

I’ve got to tell you in my district, H-2B visas are huge in the tourism industry. And when we have these arbitrary [annual H-2B] caps that are set, we have many businesses — small businesses especially — that can’t hire enough employees for the tourist season. These [foreign] people come here and they work after six to nine months they go back home. And that’s an idea that most Americans can support but again, by only focusing on border security, we’re we’re ignoring other issues that are out there.

Similarly, GOP representatives who rely on the agriculture industry are zigzagging as they try to force down wages paid to H-2A visa workers amid growing international competition. That group is led by Rep. Dan Newhouse (R-WA), who owns orchards in Washington State.

The farmers growing preference for H-2A workers robs their local American communities of wages, consumer spending, and wealth.

Left-wing legislators and progressive journalists praise the business groups who are demanding more wage-cutting migration.

For example, Greg Sargent, a Washington Post advocate for greater corporate use of cheap foreign labor who describes himself as a progressive, wrote on April 18:

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) and GOP leaders had planned to pass their border bill in January, but that idea got shelved when objections from moderate Republicans caught them off guard. The sticking point is that the GOP bill would functionally end asylum seeking entirely.

…

Meanwhile, the pro-immigration [West Coast investor] group FWD.us has released a blueprint combining these ideas into a broader agenda. The principle here is that opening up more legal pathways is the way to reduce pressure on the border while also honoring pro-immigrant values and international commitments.

FWD.us has been one of the main drivers of Biden’s immigration policy.

In an April 23 article, the New York Times touted advocacy by FWD.us under the headline, “Biden Opens a New Back Door on Immigration.”

The newspaper cited an April 20 report by the FWD.us group, saying:

Thousands of carpenters, medical workers, and manufacturers, among many other skilled individuals, have been admitted into the U.S. through immigration parole in recent months … New FWD.us estimates show that people recently granted parole—largely from Afghanistan, Ukraine, and Latin American countries—have had a profoundly positive impact on our economy, particularly at a time when worker shortages have contributed to soaring inflation.

…

Although the direct link between the filling of job vacancies by paroled adults and more tempered inflation rates cannot be made, it is likely that newly arrived individuals helped to ease inflation through workforce expansion in these industries challenged by labor shortages.

Like Sargent and many other progressives, the New York Times article whitewashed the pocketbook damage being inflicted on ordinary Americans by Biden’s migration, which is said “could become the largest expansion of legal immigration in decades.”

 

GOP Negotiations

Amid the splits, the bill is a challenge for the various groups of Republicans, said Ira Mehlman, the spokesman for the Federation for AMerican Immigration Reform (FAIR).

‘They have a moral obligation to the American people … [and they] should have some sense of obligation to the voters who have made it clear that that they want some serious reforms and changes.”

The bill is also a challenge to the GOP leaders who must keep their fractious party together, Mehlman said. “They’re there to hold the caucus in line, and that’s what McCarthy needs to be doing.”

McCarthy’s office is trying to bridge the gap between the party’s voters and donors.

Business groups are happy to back minor or incomplete measures, such as adding a few thousand border agents, or finishing most of the border wall, or strengthening penalties on coyotes. Such modest gains would be trumpeted in donor-funded campaign ads by the legislators who gutted the most effective measures, such as curbs on asylum claims, or a ban on Biden’s parole pathways.

On April 17, the pro-establishment outlet, Politico, describes the talks while mischaracterizing business-backed legislators as “moderates” and “the center of the party”:

Uneasy center: The latest version, which GOP lawmakers released Monday, is running into opposition from the center of the party. Those swing-district Republicans have worried that the bill’s language on asylum, in particular, is too strong — anxious it could alienate voters back home.

Inside the meeting: That language is similar to a bill backed by Rep. Chip Roy, who made the push for his priority in a closed-door meeting in McCarthy’s office on Monday.

Many of the moderates have channeled their frustrations through Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart, a veteran lawmaker who has decades of experience in immigration policy. Diaz-Balart, too, attended the McCarthy office meeting.:

Amid the business pressures on the pending legislation, said Law, “At the end of the day, as of right now, this legislative package is the best-looking border security package … [from] the House that I can think of.”

 

Extraction Migration

The federal government has long operated an unpopular economic policy of Extraction Migration. This colonialism-like policy extracts vast amounts of human resources from needy countries, reduces beneficial trade, and uses the imported workers, renters, and consumers to grow Wall Street and the economy.

The migrant inflow has successfully forced down Americans’ wages and also boosted rents and housing prices. The inflow has also pushed many native-born Americans out of careers in a wide variety of business sectors and contributed to the rising death rate of poor Americans.

The lethal policy also sucks jobs and wealth from heartland states by subsidizing coastal investors with a flood of low-wage workers, high-occupancy renters, and government-aided consumers.

The population inflow also reduces the political clout of native-born Americans, because the population replacement allows elites to divorce themselves from the needs and interests of ordinary Americans.

In many speeches, Mayorkas says he is building a mass migration system to deliver workers to wealthy employers and investors and “equity” to poor foreigners. The nation’s border laws are subordinate to an elite opinion about “the values of our country,” Mayorkas claims.

Migration — and especially, labor migration — is unpopular among swing voters. A 54 percent majority of Americans say Biden is allowing a southern border invasion, according to an August 2022 poll commissioned by the left-of-center National Public Radio (NPR). The 54 percent “Invasion” majority included 76 percent of Republicans, 46 percent of independents, and even 40 percent of Democrats.

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