by Jason Cohen
Tennessee Republican Tim Burchett told CNN’s Jim Acosta on Friday that the host knows “good and well” that February’s Senate border bill would be disastrous if passed.
The Emergency Measures for National Security Act included additional funding to hire more immigration judges, as well as to serve illegal aliens in the United States, but Republicans he argued it would not significantly reduce illegal immigration. Acosta on “CNN Newsroom With Jim Acosta” characterized the bill as a “bipartisan attempt to crack down on the border,” but Burchett said it was a “bad deal” and that the host understood it wouldn’t be effective.
TO WATCH:
‘Jim, come on’: GOP official tells CNN host he knows a ‘good and good’ border bill would be a ‘disaster’ pic.twitter.com/krZ57lNo69
— Daily Caller (@DailyCaller) June 14, 2024
“It was a law to hire a lawyer,” Burchett said. “It just said that when they get to 5,000 people a day, Jim, now 4,999 illegal people a day, that’s fine,” Burchett began, then Acosta interrupted him, asking, “But why not do something if you have a bipartisan effort?”
Burchett denied that this was the case bipartisanwith Acosta noting that Republican Senator James Lankford of Oklahoma was the GOP’s chief negotiator for Bill.
“He’s a good guy, but you know it was catch and release and see what it would do,” Burchett said. “They just hired more lawyers to let illegals into the country and you know damn well when they get a court date in two years, damn it, they ain’t coming back to court, Jim, come on.”
“It was a disaster waiting to happen, and it was a terrible piece of legislation,” Burchett added. “It wouldn’t do anything without hiring more lawyers, and they just want to implement a law that says we’re going to let 5,000 illegal immigrants across the border a day, and that’s all this bill would accomplish.”
Bill attached a provision stating that the border can remain open if fewer than 5,000 migrants arrive per day. Authorities would be able to expel migrants without action if the weekly average of crossings exceeded that number.
Senate Republicans blocked bill in February because they didn’t believe it was intended to secure the border.
Most recently, President Joe Biden exposed immigration executive order after months of saying it could take no action to ease the border crisis. The executive action pauses fresh asylum applications when the number of migrants crossing into the U.S. reaches an average of 2,500 per day over the course of a week.
Were six million or more encounters at the southern border during Biden’s presidency. The president came face to face repulse on both sides of the aisle after the announcement of the executive order.
The order does not appear to have had an impact on the rate of illegal immigration so far, based on sector reports, internal data and local officials. reported.
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Jason Cohen is a reporter at the Daily Caller News Foundation.
Photo “Jim Acosta” by Jim Acosta. Cover photo “US Capitol” by Thomas Lin.
