(PartiallyPolitics.com) – On Thursday, Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, pushed for the Senate to pass their own version of the Secure the Border Act which was passed by the Republicans in the House earlier this year. However, the bill, while successful in the lower chamber, had trouble with passing in the upper chamber which is controlled by the Democrats.
Cruz along with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and nine other senators have been pushing for the Senate to pass a bill overhauling the asylum process and dealing with border security. The bill is the GOP’s version of a detailed immigration plan that would help handle the immigration crisis in the U.S.-Mexico border. However, lawmakers from the two parties have not reached many agreements regarding the handling of the immigration crisis which is in its third year.
As part of the bill the Republicans would restart construction of the border wall, would place more than 22,000 new Border Patrol agents at the border, and would require the biometrics and DNA of every migrant who enters the country to be collected.
The Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP) and Asylum Cooperative Agreements (ACAs) from the Trump administration would be enshrined while additional changes would be made to the laws regarding unaccompanied children. They would also limit the use of humanitarian parole while also criminalizing overstaying a visa. Finally, it would ban the use of the CBP One app for the migration process.
In a statement, Cruz argued that under the Biden administration, the southern border had been left “wide-open” and that the country is facing the biggest immigration crisis in its history because of this.
Copyright 2023, PartiallyPolitics.com
