Lindsey Graham forced an asylum reform bill through his Senate committee Thursday after Democrats kept kicking the can down the road.
Graham’s bill, the Secure and Protect Act, would eliminate asylum loopholes to get control of the border crisis. Democrats refused to debate the bill in an attempt to kill it before the August recess.
The Senate Judiciary Committee erupted into a partisan fury on Thursday as Graham pushed the bill through by a narrow 12-10 vote. Democrats accused Graham of breaking the rules by taking up the bill despite the panel falling short of a quorum at a meeting last month, where all Democrats except Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) failed to show. According to committee rules, at least two Democrats would need to have been present for the bill to move forward.
Doing whatever it takes
Graham threatened to break committee rules after the Democrats’ no-show, and on Thursday he followed through. Democrats erupted in protest, with Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT) tearing up his committee rule book, while Feinstein asked rhetorically, “Why have rules?”
But Graham, unmoved, accused Democrats of purposefully delaying the bill, which he introduced in May, and trying to usurp his power as chairman by skipping the meeting the week before. The Republican said that he would not allow his panel to become “the ‘dead in committee’ on things that matter. We’re actually going to act.”
“It would be different if I had not tried. For seven weeks I withheld marking up this bill and I got nowhere,” Graham said. “What you’re telling me is I should ignore what you did to me last week. I will not. I will work with you as long as I can in good faith but you’re not going to take my job away from me!”
The bill targets abuse of the asylum process, for example, by extending the number of days immigrant families can be held in detention from 20 days to 100 days, as well as requiring asylum seekers to apply for U.S. asylum in their home countries, instead of applying at ports of entry at the southern border or by crossing illegally elsewhere and then claiming asylum. Under the status quo, migrants often present themselves at the border, make a spurious claim of persecution, and then settle in the country while their claims are being processed.
Republicans, including Graham, have argued that the 20-day window forces immigration authorities to release migrants into the country, letting them settle indefinitely as illegal immigrants. The bill also funds 500 new immigration judges to expedite asylum cases and would allow unaccompanied migrant children from Central America to be returned to their home countries after a screening, in line with the policy that applies to unaccompanied migrant children from Mexico or Canada.
Graham’s evolution
Democrats accused Graham of failing to deal fairly, despite Graham saying he would be open to negotiating a DACA amnesty. They vowed to kill the bill on the Senate floor, where it will need 60 votes to pass. Even with a party-line Republican vote, Republicans would need seven Democrats to vote with them.
With upward of 100,000 migrants storming the border each month, the crisis Democrats once called “manufactured” has spiraled out of control. Graham introduced the bill to cut down on asylum fraud and restore order to this broken system, but Democrats have continually refused to cooperate. Feinstein claimed that Graham’s reforms were “draconian” and “will increase [humanitarian] problems at the border,” noting that seven migrant children have died in U.S. detention. “The Graham bill doesn’t fix these problems, it will only make them worse,” Feinstein said.
Historically, Graham has been a bipartisan reformer on immigration. But Graham, who once earned the nickname “Lindsey Grahamnesty” for working with Democrats, seems to have lost patience with their uncompromising open borders agenda.
“I will no longer allow our asylum laws to be exploited by human traffickers, smugglers, and cartels,” Graham said in a statement Thursday. “Cartels, smugglers and human traffickers are profiting off immigrants and helping them take advantage of our broken asylum laws. I will no longer allow the loopholes in our laws to be exploited. I will not aid and abet these horrific practices. My bill fixes these problems.”
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