Border bill fails as Republicans fight Democrats – and themselves

Even by Washington standards, it was a stunningly quick implosion.

The bipartisan border security bill unveiled in the Senate at the start of this week was the product of months of negotiations. Almost miraculously, it garnered praise from both Border Patrol agents and blue city mayors, and from conservative and liberal newspaper editorial boards alike.

Originally, Republicans had been the ones pushing for border security to be addressed as part of a larger foreign aid package that included billions for Israel and Ukraine, and the resulting deal delivered on some longtime GOP goals.

But after former President Donald Trump expressed opposition to the bill, Republicans began denouncing it even before the text was released. By Wednesday afternoon, it was officially dead, failing in the Senate 49-50 with only four Republicans voting to advance. Senators are now considering whether to advance the rest of the package, known as the national security supplemental, ironically leaving lawmakers back where they started several months ago, before Republicans requested that new border policy be tied to the aid.

The swift fall of yet another piece of bipartisan legislation, in this case on an issue that many Americans now see as the country’s top problem, was clearly frustrating to some lawmakers. But it followed an arc that’s become emblematic of this moment in Washington, in which compromise is seen as surrender, and maintaining a political vulnerability for the opposition is considered more valuable than a policy win. 

In some ways, it’s the impact of negative polarization playing out in Congress. With both parties internally divided on a host of big issues and holding just razor-thin majorities in one chamber or the other, the primary force for party unity these days increasingly seems to be opposition to the other side.  

“You can do press conferences without the other side, but you can’t make law without the other side,” said Sen. James Lankford, the Oklahoma Republican and one of the lead negotiators, on the Senate floor Wednesday. “I had a popular commentator that told me flat-out, if you try to move a bill that solves the border crisis during this presidential year, I will do whatever I can to destroy you. Because I do not want you to solve this during the presidential election.”

To Sen. Chris Murphy of Connecticut, the Democrats’ lead negotiator on the border bill, its dizzying demise after months of negotiations represented a new high-water mark of partisan angling, even for this Congress. He says it may leave a trust deficit that makes future bipartisan efforts all but impossible.

“We did everything [Republicans] said, and they abandoned it before they even read the bill,” he said. “This is admittedly a scary situation when you don’t have real partners who could follow through.”

Regardless of what happens in the Senate, the Israel and Ukraine aid looks unlikely to pass the Republican-controlled U.S. House, which has had its own stumbles this week. A bill to pass Israel funding on its own failed on Tuesday, just minutes after Republicans’ effort to impeach Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas also failed. Speaker Mike Johnson reiterated to reporters on Wednesday that democracy is “messy” and that they would try again.

Immigration has overtaken both the economy and inflation since November as the “most important problem facing the country” in Gallup’s monthly survey. It is likely to be a leading issue in the 2024 presidential race, and one that Republicans have long seen as beneficial to their efforts to win back the White House. Mr. Trump has a 35-point edge over President Joe Biden when it comes to “securing the border and controlling immigration,” his biggest lead on any issue by over 10 points. 

“This Bill is a great gift to the Democrats, and a Death Wish for The Republican Party,” Mr. Trump posted on Truth Social on Monday. “It takes the HORRIBLE JOB the Democrats have done on Immigration and the Border, absolves them, and puts it all squarely on the shoulders of Republicans. Don’t be STUPID!!!” 

Notably, Republicans haven’t really tried to deny these dynamics.

“Obviously the politics of this were a big factor,” Sen. John Cornyn of Texas told reporters. “The speaker [of the House] said the Senate bill is dead on arrival, and then President Trump weighs in and discourages Republicans from voting for it.”

The bill would have provided about $20 billion for enhanced border security, such as border wall construction, more detention facilities, more asylum officers, and tools to shut down the border if crossings spike, without any of the pathways to citizenship that Democrats typically require in any immigration negotiations. 

“This is unheard-of,” says Mike Madrid, a Republican political consultant and co-host of “The Latino Vote” podcast, adding that Democrats are playing offense on the issue of immigration for the first time in three decades.

“This is a solution that meets 95% of what [Republicans] wanted, and now they are saying no? That’s not going to go over well among voters,” says Mr. Madrid, suggesting that failing to accept this bill may actually work against Republicans in November. “Republicans can hold out [on solutions] for a week, but they can’t hold out for eight months. And Democrats have figured that out.”