Leading the charge against the Schumer-Lankford deal, released on the night of Sunday, February 4, was Sen. Steve Daines of Montana, the chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, or NRSC. The NRSC is important, and thus its chairman is important, because it helps fund GOP Senate campaigns and is a major fundraiser for that purpose.
Somewhat surprisingly, Sen. Gaines not only opposes the border deal, but, according to Breitbart News, was the first of the members of the GOP Senate caucus to publicly announce his opposition to the border deal. He did so in a post on X (formerly Twitter), saying that the deal would not secure the border and would likely make it worse by funding groups involved in exacerbating the immigration disaster.
Doing so in an early morning post on Monday, February 5, Sen. Gaines said, “I can’t support a bill that doesn’t secure the border, provides taxpayer funded lawyers to illegal immigrants and gives billions to radical open borders groups. I’m a no.”
He was quickly joined by other Republican senators. Sen. Rand Paul, for example, wrote, “Amazing. This predictable revelation is only a week old and yet the Swamp’s new “border security” bill gives Ukraine $60 billion more….from the squandering of your money to the fake border reforms, it’s safe to declare this bill as anti-American. I’m a NO.”
Even Senate Minority Leader Sen. Mitch McConnell is reportedly against the deal. The Associated Press, reporting on the matter, claimed that the GOP senators held a closed-door meeting on the deal in which Sen. McConnell encouraged Republicans to vote against it when the first procedural vote occurs on Wednesday, February 7. It’s sources on that meeting and McConnell’s request were anonymous.
Less surprisingly, populist Sen. JD Vance came out against the bill. In one post on X, he described the bill as making it impossible to close the border. He said, “‘The border never closes’ is a good summary of this bill, and of Joe Biden’s policy. I can understand why Chris Murphy supports it. I cannot imagine why any Republican supports this atrocious proposal.”
In another post on the matter, Sen. Vance wrote, “The House is impeaching Mayorkas next week while the Senate will be voting to give him massive discretion to …not enforce the border. Why would any Republican vote for this?” In another post, Sen. Vance added, “Granting Mayorkas the ability to grant asylum claims without going through immigration court is perhaps the worst provision of the bill.”
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Sen. Tom Cotton also came out swinging against the border deal and declared his opposition. He said, “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.” Cotton added, “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.”
Featured image credit: By U.S. Department of Agriculture – 20170824-OSEC-LSC-1211, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=63757117