GOP Senator John Cornyn Negotiating Amnesty Deal for Illegal Aliens with Democrats

UNITED STATES - FEBRUARY 24: Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, attends the Senate Select Intellig
Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call/POOL
John Binder

Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) confirmed this week that he is negotiating an amnesty deal for likely millions of illegal aliens with Senate Democrats.

In statements to PunchBowl News, Cornyn confirmed that he is hammering out the details of an expansive amnesty deal with Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL) that could give green cards, and eventually American citizenship, to illegal aliens enrolled and eligible for the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, those given Temporary Protected Status (TPS), and illegal aliens who work on farms.

“Right now, there’s a proposal to deal with DACA, a bipartisan border solutions bill, if there’s a deal to be had on farmworkers, and TPS recipients,” Cornyn told PunchBowl News this week. “I’m not sure where TPS figures in all this. But that’s the current proposal, so we’ll see if we can agree on some parameters for those three things: DACA [illegal aliens], [illegal alien] farmworkers, and the [southern] border.”

“I’ve agreed to focus on those three things and see if we can come up with some parameters that would make sense and that I can support,” Cornyn said.

Cornyn said he is hoping to have an amnesty deal drafted by the end of the week to send off to Durbin and other Senate Democrats.

In March, the Democrat-controlled House — with support from 30 House Republicans — passed H.R. 1603, known as the “Farm Workforce Modernization Act of 2021,” and H.R. 6, known as “American Dream and Promise Act of 2021.”

Together, the two plans would give amnesty to about 2.1 million illegal aliens working on U.S. farms and another 4.4 million DACA-enrolled and eligible illegal aliens and those with TPS.

At the time, 17 Senate Republicans told Breitbart News they will oppose both amnesty plans, including:

  • Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN)
  • Sen. John Boozman (R-AR)
  • Sen. Mike Braun (R-IN)
  • Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR)
  • Sen. Mike Crapo (R-ID)
  • Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX)
  • Sen. Steve Daines (R-MT)
  • Sen. Bill Hagerty (R-TN)
  • Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO)
  • Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-MS)
  • Sen. James Inhofe (R-OK)
  • Sen. James Lankford (R-OK)
  • Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT)
  • Sen. Jerry Moran (R-KS)
  • Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL)
  • Sen. Roger Marshall (R-KS)
  • Sen. Roger Wicker (R-MS)

The remaining 33 Senate Republicans have either not stated a clear position on amnesty or have not responded to requests for comments about whether they would support such a measure.

While Cornyn negotiates an amnesty deal, many Senate Democrats are seeking to slip an amnesty past Congress through a little-known “reconciliation” maneuver. Senate Budget Committee Chairman Bernie Sanders (I-VT) is crafting a proposal that would include forcing American taxpayers to spend $150 billion on providing amnesty to millions of illegal aliens.

An amnesty would come as nearly 16 million remain jobless but all of who want full-time jobs. Another 5.3 million Americans are underemployed but likewise, want full-time employment.

An analysis released this week by the Center for Immigration Studies revealed that amnesty for illegal aliens, which would immediately flood the U.S. labor market with millions of newly legalized foreign workers for whom employers can legally hire, would have a devastating impact on the nation’s ongoing unemployment problem.

“Allowing all illegal immigrants … to stay and giving them all legal status so they compete with legal immigrants and the native-born throughout the labor market will likely make it increasingly difficult to draw more Americans back into the labor market,” research Steven Camarota detailed.

Already, current immigration levels put downward pressure on U.S. wages while redistributing about $500 billion in wealth away from America’s working and middle class and towards employers and new arrivals, research by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine has found.

The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) has repeatedly found that amnesty for illegal aliens would be a net fiscal drain for American taxpayers while driving down U.S. wages.

Every year, 1.2 million legal immigrants are given green cards to permanently resettle in the U.S. In addition, 1.4 million foreign nationals are given visas to take American jobs while hundreds of thousands of illegal aliens enter the U.S. annually.

John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Email him at jbinder@breitbart.com. Follow him on Twitter here. 

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