Border bill does not include comprehensive reform, but adds protections for some migrants

A bipartisan group of lawmakers, including independent Sen. Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona, unveiled Sunday an $118 billion foreign-spending package that includes changes to the U.S. asylum system that aim to reduce the number of migrants crossing the U.S.-Mexico border.

The deal would set aside the bulk for the funding for U.S. allies abroad, including $60 billion in military aid to Ukraine, $14 billion for Israel and $10 billion for humanitarian aid. The bill would allocate $20 billion to several border security provisions.

Sinema, along with Sens. James Lankford, R-Okla., and Chris Murphy, D-Conn., negotiated the deal over two months, with support from the White House the party leaders in the Senate. It faces its first vote Wednesday.

The bill's border security provisions have drawn backlash from Republicans, who say the changes don't go far enough, as well as from Democrats, who say it is punitive and a rehash of Trump-era policies.

Here's what you need to know about the border security provisions within the bipartisan spending deal:

Authority to shut down asylum processing at border

The bipartisan agreement would alter drastically how migrants are able to access asylum in the United States. One of the biggest changes under the Sinema-crafted agreement is the creation of a "border emergency authority."

When applied, this authority would allow the U.S. government to shut down asylum processing along the U.S.-Mexico border, if the number of migrants that U.S. Border Patrol agents encounter in between the ports of entry exceeds 4,000 per day over a seven-day period.

But the language in the bill would make it mandatory the U.S. to shut down asylum processing if encounters rise to 5,000 per day over a seven-day period, or if they rise to 8,500 in a single day. Once processing is shut down, migrants would be turned away at the border.

The deal authorizes the president to suspend this emergency authority for up to 45 days if deemed in the national interest, and requires the Homeland Security secretary to suspend it two weeks after migrant encounters fall below the 75 percent threshold that triggered it. Republican critics of the bill have characterized the presidential discretion as a loophole.

Migrants that are processed for asylum claims at the border would face a higher standard and be required to show proof early on that they would face prosecution or torture if they are sent back. The bill would exempt processing at ports of entry from the shut down, allowing for at least 1,400 appointments per day.

Ends 'catch and release' and reduces timeline to decide cases

Sinema said the border security agreement would end "catch and release," the practice by which migrants are detained and processed at the border, and then released into the interior with a notice to appear in court several weeks or months away. It generally takes years to decide a single case because of a 3.2 million case backlog in immigration court.

Under the bipartisan agreement, migrants processed at the border would be placed either in detention or under supervision for about three months. During that time, they will take undergo an initial asylum interview. If they pass, they will be issued a work permit but remain under supervision for an additional three months.

At that point, asylum officers would decide the validity of their asylum claims, rather than adding their cases to the backlogged immigration court. That means that an asylum seeker's claims would be decided in about six months, rather than years under the current system.

Deal does not address undocumented migrants, including Dreamers, in US

While this bill makes significant changes the U.S. asylum system, it would not comprehensively reform the larger immigration system in the United States. That system has not had meaningful, large-scale reform since 1996.

The agreement does not address the legal status of Dreamers, undocumented youth brought to the country by their parents, Temporary Protected Status recipients or any of the estimated 11 million undocumented immigrants living in the United States.

This deal also does not create a guest worker program to address labor shortages in the country, or update the current visa system in the U.S., which remains backlogged and takes years or decades to allow someone to migrate legally to the United States.

The bill would provide legal status for Afghans, authorizes more visas

What this bipartisan agreement does is create legal status for a reduced population of people already in the country, and allocates additional immigrant visas.

Most notably, it would provide permanent legal status to at least 115,000 Afghan allies that were evacuated and resettled in the United States after the 2021 Taliban takeover of Afghanistan. Afghans were admitted into the country under humanitarian parole for two years. They can renew that status, but it does not offer a permanent path to stay in the country.

The bill also extends protections to the children of H-1B visa holders so that they don't age out of legal status when they turn 21 because of a backlog in processing green card applications. This section of the bill also authorizes 250,000 new immigrant visas over the next five years.

Guarantees access to attorneys for unaccompanied children

Another notable policy change under the agreement deals with legal representation for unaccompanied children apprehended along the U.S.-Mexico border.

At the moment, unaccompanied minors are allowed but not guaranteed access to an attorney representing them at their immigration proceedings. Language in the border security bill would require the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to provide an attorney to unaccompanied children under 13 years old.

Have any news tips or story ideas about immigration in the Southwest? Reach the reporter at rafael.carranza@arizonarepublic.com, or follow him on X (formerly Twitter): @RafaelCarranza.

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Senate border bill: Here's what is included. And here's what isn't.