Border-State Senators and Representatives Introduce Legislation to Address Migrant Influx

Last week, a bipartisan group of Senators and House members unveiled The Bipartisan Border Solutions Act intended to “respond to the surge in migrants coming across our southern border.” The bill comes after Customs and Border Protection (CBP) apprehended more than 170,000 people at the U.S.-Mexico border in March, the highest number in at least 15 years.

Senators John Cornyn (R-TX) and Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ) and Representatives Henry Cuellar (D-TX) and Tony Gonzales (R-TX) introduced the bill in their respective chambers of Congress.

According to the bill’s sponsors, the bill would: establish regional processing centers, create pilot programs for better addressing credible fear determinations and asylum decisions, prioritize immigration case docketing during “irregular migration influx events,” expand legal orientation programming and translation services, implement new protections for unaccompanied minor children released to sponsors, and prevent release of migrants into “small communities.” The bill would additionally provide for 150 new Immigration Judge teams, 300 asylum officers, ICE Enforcement and Operations staff, ICE litigation teams, CBP officers, and Border Patrol processing coordinators. The bill would also improve reporting from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Department of Justice (DOJ), and Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to Congress to inform future efforts.

The bill’s sponsors say the bills addresses their “firsthand” observations of law enforcement challenges at the southern border and would reduce the impact of migrant surges on border communities.

Critics of the The Bipartisan Border Solutions Act include the American Civil Liberties Union, whose director of border strategies, Jonathan Blazer said, “[r]ather than building a fair and humane system for people fleeing danger and seeking protection, the bill instead works within the failed framework of deterrence and detention designed to short-circuit due process.”

Jennifer Quigley, senior director for government affairs at Human Rights First, praised the bill’s measures to include asylum officers and inclusion of the Office of Refugee Resettlement, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, and Legal Orientation Programs at border facilities. However, she said other provisions in the bill “would lead to the immediate deportation of refugees seeking protection despite their legitimate fears of persecution” and deter people from seeking refuge in the United States.

Senators Cornyn and Sinema have been part of a bipartisan group led by Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL) working to address the border surge; they are reportedly expected to meet with Senator Durbin this week to discuss their bill.