Senate Border Bill to Allow 5,000 Migrants a Day Before Title 42-Type Limit Starts

A border proposal still being hammered out by Senate negotiators would include a Title 42-type authority that would only be mandated if numbers at the southern border exceeded 5,000 migrant encounters a day — part of a package already drawing fierce criticism from some conservatives in the chamber, with one GOP lawmaker branding it a “stinking pile of crap.”

Talks have been ongoing for months as lawmakers have tried to find a deal over a fix to the southern border as part of talks for supplemental spending that includes aid to Ukraine and Israel. The Biden administration is seeking over $100 billion in funding, including $14 billion for the border. But Republicans have demanded limits on migrant releases into the interior, including the use of parole, and negotiators have been attempting to find a compromise.

Multiple sources familiar with the proposal tell Fox News Digital that the proposal would tighten the language of the initial credible fear standard for asylum screenings. One source said that those briefing lawmakers had predicted it could lead to the majority of migrants going through the screenings being removed.

Linked to that would be a Title 42-style expulsion authority to quickly remove migrants at the border similar to the COVID-19-era authority. Multiple sources said that the use of that authority would be mandated only if there was a 7-day rolling average of above 5,000 encounters a day.

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The use of humanitarian parole at the border by the administration would also be restricted, but migrants could still be paroled in if they cite humanitarian reasons. Those restrictions are not expected to include parole programs in which migrants are flown in, such as those for Afghans and Ukrainians, as well as the Cuban Haitian, Nicaraguan and Venezuelan (CHNV) parole program — which allows 30,000 migrants to fly in to be paroled each month, as part of the administration’s “expanded lawful pathways.”

One source familiar with the proposal said that the time asylum seekers would need to wait for a work permit would be cut from 180 days to 90 in some cases. Also expected to be in the bill is a proposal to grant work permits to children of legal temporary visa holders, including H-1B workers, who turn 21 while in the country. Those foreign nationals have been dubbed “Documented Dreamers” by activists, and it could affect up to a quarter of a million people.

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The proposal, even if it were to pass the Senate, would likely hit a buzzsaw of opposition in the House — where the Republican majority has said it wants the inclusion of the entirety of the House border security bill passed last year as part of any supplemental spending bill. It also would face considerable opposition in the Senate. A source close to negotiations told Fox News Digital they believed it would make the crisis worse.

“This expensive, back room deal is packed full of quotas making the crisis a norm, quasi-amnesty provisions, and billions of dollars for corrupt NGOs and sanctuary cities—all of which will fuel the invasion at our border, not stop the flow,” they said. {snip}

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