Thread by @SenTomCotton

I’ve reviewed the bill, I don’t think it will solve our border crisis, and might make it worse. I will oppose it.
 
Joe Biden created this crisis by design. He can and should reverse his open border policies today.

Here are a few of my concerns:

The bill gives Secretary Mayorkas the right—for the first time—to grant asylum claims (and thus American citizenship) to illegal aliens at the border without review by the immigration courts, which will be a massive pathway to rubber-stamping amnesty.

The bill codifies catch-and-release under so-called “alternatives to detention” for any alien who says they *intend* to apply for asylum or another protection.

The bill gives immediate work permits to everyone who says they want asylum, as long as they pass an initial screening by liberal bureaucrats. This will be a huge magnet for more illegal immigration.

The bill grants 50,000 extra green cards per year for no apparent reason and entirely unrelated to border security.

The bill also guarantees new, government-funded lawyers for illegal aliens.

Despite all this, the bill doesn’t limit Biden and Mayorkas’s abuse of immigration parole, allowing them to continue abusing parole and issuing work permits to any illegal alien who they claim has an “urgent humanitarian reason” to stay.

The bill also would send billions of dollars of non-military, “humanitarian” aid to Gaza and elsewhere without adequate safeguards that it won’t be used for anti-American purposes.

While the bill does include needful defense measures, especially replenishing our munitions stockpile, these parts can’t outweigh the problems with the bill. Congress should separately and immediately take these steps to rebuild our military and defense industry.