The border crossing surge, as I posted yesterday, is overwhelming a case of persons crossing the border at other than an official port of entry.  The great majority of these “illegal,” or “irregular” migrants seek to give themselves up while applying for amnesty.

CNN reported on January 26 (later in the day, confirmed by the Washington Post)  that the Senate is negotiating provisions which will likely drastically cut back on the surge by “shutting down” the border, presumably authorizing Border Patrol to refuse to accept any application for amnesty.  House Republicans who do not, in my opinion, want a resolution to the border crisis under Biden’s watch, will find these provisions threatening.

The CNN report:

Under the soon-to-be-released package, the Department of Homeland Security would be granted new emergency authority to shut down the border if daily average migrant encounters reach 4,000 over a one-week span. If migrant crossings increase above 5,000 per day on a given week, DHS would be required to close the border to all illegal migrants.

Moreover, if crossings exceed 8,500 in a single day, DHS would be required to close the border to migrants illegally crossing the border. Under the proposal, any migrant who tries to cross the border twice while it is closed would be banned from entering the US for one year.

The goal of the trio of negotiators – GOP Sen. James Lankford of Oklahoma, Independent Sen. Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona and Democratic Sen. Chris Murphy of Connecticut – is to prevent surges that overwhelm federal authorities. The Biden administration and Senate leaders have been heavily involved in the talks, and more details of the deal are expected to be released in the coming days.

In December alone, there were over 300,000 migrant encounters. The source said if the new legislation were in effect, the border would be shut down now to illegal migrants (Immigrants legally making appointments or legally traveling in and out of the US would still have access to ports of entry.