Today the Senate released the long-awaited border bill. As we expected, it was actually a war-funding bill that mentions the border for 50 pages of its 370-page text.
Not only does it not secure the border and stop illegal immigration, it seems to codify the current situation we're in now. Watch the video to find out more:
LISTEN TO THE EPISODE:
VIDEO TRANSCRIPT:
This is a war funding bill, 84 billion dollars at least to fund two different wars and multiple sides of the war. And then they're going to throw in this little immigration kicker on top of that.
The only reason they're really throwing this in is to try and get Republicans to vote for it. They throw in the Israel thing. Maybe we can get some Republicans to vote and we can also send Ukraine aid at the same time. And it also kind of absolves them of this talking point of this is Biden's border crisis because they can say, well, we tried to fix the border and Republicans just didn't want to just like how Chuck Schumer just ended right then saying that Trump wants chaos.
This is all on Trump and his minions. But then when you actually look at the bill, it doesn't do anything to solve the border problem. This is a Libertarian podcast. We have a very nuanced opinion when it comes to immigration. But one thing I don't have a nuanced opinion on is when people are lying about things.
And even if I maybe disagree with some of the strongest border hawks that there are out there, I also don't like it when politicians use lies as talking points and try to present this bill as something that it's not. So we're gonna talk about this today as if we just actually wanted the border crisis to be shut down and we wanted it to be stopped.
Does this bill do that? The clear answer is No, no, it doesn't do that. It actually codifies what's happening right now into law. You know that talking point of Biden's not following the law, and so therefore we have to do something? What this essentially does is take what's happening right now and puts it into law.
That way you can't say that Biden's not following what the immigration laws are. It essentially says, well, you know, as long as it's not more than 5, 000, then what are you gonna do about it? That's, that's the law says that we're gonna allow this many people. Over the border. So there you go. Let's go through some of this.
I did pull up a news story because I, I wanted to see, I wanted to see the points of the bill without having to read the whole thing. And it turns out I ended up needing to read all of the immigration section and some of the other stuff a couple times to get a good grasp on it because the news reports on it are all over the place and don't cover the points very well.
But here's one from CBS. It says senators released border. Ukraine deal that would allow the president to pause U. S. asylum law and quickly deport migrants. Doesn't really do those things, but let's talk a little bit about what CBS had to say about it. If the bill is passed by Congress and signed into law by the president, the federal government would gain a new sweeping emergency authority to reject most migrants when crossings along the southern border reach certain thresholds.
Now what do they mean by reject? That's not really something you can find in this bill. During this time that the border is emergency shut down, they don't say that they're just gonna turn, turn away every person, that they're gonna put them on a bus and take them back to Mexico, or that they're gonna force them to wait in Mexico while they're processing asylum claims that remain in Mexico policy.
Nothing like that. They actually don't line out what they're gonna do to shut down the border other than they're not gonna be processing these asylum claims And the illegal places that people are entering. Presumably what they're gonna do is they're gonna put people on a bus and take them to one of the legal ports of entry.
And allow them to do their asylum claims through that area, which they say must still stay open even when the border is emergency shut down. We'll talk about that more when we're going through the text on the bill. The power could be activated on a discretionary basis after average daily border crossings are over 4, 000.
Over seven day period, the federal government would be required to use the authority when daily average border crossings reach 5, 000 over seven days, or if there are 8, 500 in a day, the power, which Mr. Biden is referred to as an authority to shut down the border would allow the president to effectively pause asylum law, which currently allows most migrants on us soil to request asylum, even if they entered the country illegally, like I said, what they're going to do is they're going to take them down to one of the legal ports of entry.
And they actually have a minimum amount of inadmissible immigrants or migrants or whatever aliens that they have to process every day. A minimum amount, not even a maximum amount there. There's a minimum of 1, 400 that they have to process every day during this time that the border is shut down. So it says that they have to keep doing it even with inadmissible migrants.
The authority would sunset after three years. There would also be limits on the number of days on which this power can be used. This is a really weird one that I did not Understand there's a limit of days that this power can be used. Now, if this is a, a border securing bill, wouldn't it be important year round?
It kind of seems like a year round thing that you would want your border to be secure if that is in fact, one of the goals of the law that you're passing. Like that's a principle that you said is important. And so you want to try and keep the border secured all the time. This actually sets a limited number of days that this can be enforced each year, and it's less days each year until it sunsets in three years.
So the first year is 270 days during the first year. So even if it crosses the threshold and they have to keep it closed for a long time, Once it's at 270 days, this entire authority is gone. Out the window.
There's an important thing that they messed up in here, and I actually heard someone else mess it up earlier today, as well, on a pretty big podcast. Uh, it says the emergency measure would be deactivated when the average number of daily border crossings drops. By 75%. That is not what the text of the bill says.
Now, Senator James Lankford, who is one of the authors of the bill, is upset that people don't like the bill. He tweeted out a little three part thread here today. So I wanted to give his side of the story. Senator Lankford says the Border Emergency Authority has been the most misunderstood or maybe just misrepresent Misrepresented part of the bill.
Some people have said it would mean 5, 000 people a day are coming into the country every day. That is absurd and untrue. This, the emergency authority is not designed to let 5, 000 people in. It is designed to close the border and turn 5, 000 people around. Well, not if it stays at or under 5, 000 people. I mean, if you stay at, if you, if you stay at 4, 999, then it says that's totally fine.
And that rhymed. The Border Emergency Authority only lasts three years to force this administration to shut down the border and to give time for the next president to hire more agents and more officers. After three years, the Emergency Authority expires because we should have Regained full control of our border by then.
Well, not when you have a provision in it that says if it's been closed, the third year, I believe is 180 days. So half the year, this is in effect. And if you're over this 5, 000 for that amount of time. They keep it closed, and then after that, since there's a 180 day maximum amount that it could be closed that's just wide open and this provision doesn't matter at all.
So I don't know why the border would be fully controlled by that time. It doesn't seem to make any sense to me. So let's get into it. This is in title three of this bill, one and two, where Ukraine and Israel securing America, border emergency authority. And that's where we are on this thing. Now it says, these are some exceptions to this border emergency authority.
So it should now be, shall not be activated with respect to any of the following, a citizen or national of the United States. Okay. That's cool. An alien who is lawfully admitted for permanent residence, okay. Legal immigrant, whatever, C. Uh, C here is, uh, an unaccompanied alien child. So, they're not going to be counting unaccompanied minors in this.
And then an alien who, an immigration officer, this part's very unclear. I don't know if they mean asylum seeker on this or what. An alien who an immigration officer determines with the approval of a supervisory immigration officer should be accepted from the border emergency authority based on the totality of the circumstances, including consideration of significant law enforcement officer, public safety, humanitarian and public health interests, or an alien who an immigration officer determines, in consultation with ICE should be accepted from the border emergency authority due to operational considerations.
I'm gonna be 100 percent honest with you. I don't know what that means either. Okay, but these are people that they're going to be exempting from this rule. the border emergency authority shall only be activated as to aliens who are not subject to an exception under the previous stuff that we just read and who are, after the authority is activated, within 100 miles of the United States southwest and land border and within the 14 day period after entry.
So, If you can get more than 100 miles away from the border, or you can hide out for two weeks, totally fine. This exemption happens several times. So, 100 miles, or two weeks, totally fine after that. All good. I'm assuming the 100 mile aspect, uh, has to do with the border patrol's authority, the part of the country that they actually have authority to operate in.
In general, whenever the Border Emergency Authority is activated, the Secretary shall have the authority And the Secretary's sole and unreviewable discretion to summarily remove from and prohibit in the whole or in part entry into U. S., into the U. S., of any alien identified in the subsection who is subject to such authority in accordance, people who are not in those exemptions.
Okay, the Secretary may activate the Border Emergency Authority if, during a period of seven consecutive calendar days, there is an average of 4, 000 or more aliens who are encountered. Each day. So that is a discretionary authority. If it goes over 4, 000, they can choose. To use this authority. If it goes over 5, 000, what the next part says, they, they have to do it.
Okay. So the secretary shall activate the border emergency authority. If during a period of seven consecutive calendar days, there's an average of 5, 000 or more aliens who are encountered each day or any one calendar day, a combined total of 8, 500 or more aliens are encountered encountered as a very important Word that they use quite a lot because this does not count what are known as gotaways.
So these are people that actually have encounters with the Border Patrol There are thousands of other people who are able to get in get between the systems You can see them on camera, but you don't exactly have encounters with Border Patrol Uh, that we know about, so there's a known God of Ways, and then there's the other God of Ways that we can kind of assume also happened.
Those don't count towards the number. Even if we can see on camera, if we can see on camera that there are 4, 000 known God of Ways that came through that didn't have an encounter with Border Patrol, that doesn't count towards the number. That can shut down the border just so you know and then also unaccompanied minors don't count towards the border And then there's some other rules for people who are from South America That don't count either.
We'll we'll get into that a little bit more later on in general for purposes of Peace the way that they write these things. I mean, I know it's a legal document. It's a law and all that but For purposes of those previous paragraphs, the average for the applicable seven day period shall be calculated using the sum of the number of encounters that occur between the southwest land border ports of entry of the United States, the number of encounters that occur between the ports of entry along the southern coastal borders.
and I didn't get the other part. The limitation, aliens ascribed in the subsection from non contiguous countries shall not be included in calculating the sum of aliens encountered. Non contiguous countries, that's going to mean the places from South America. So we're just counting the contiguous countries, the places that are connected with the United States without our imaginary borderlines that we draw.
Um, so once again, with not counting gotaways and even known gotaways towards the number. Unaccompanied minors, exemptions for people from non contiguous countries. Um, you got a chance that there's gonna be still thousands upon thousands of people that can come in and not even touch this law. So, like I said to start this out, they're actually taking what's happening right now and they're basically codifying it.
And there's some other weird stuff that's about to happen here, too. Let me see. The Secretary shall not activate the Board of Emergency Authority during the first calendar year after the effective date for more than 270 calendar days. So, 270 days in the first year. After that, you do whatever.
Seriously. The Emergency Authority's gone. Okay? The next year, 225 days. And in the third year, that's the year that, uh, Senator Lankford just said that our border was going to be under control, no more than 180 calendar days. So a little bit less than half of the year. So if we blow out the first half of the year, the last half of the year is really open for a blowout because there's no more authority, emergency authority after that.
I don't understand why you would decide to put a limit on the amount of days a year that you could enforce a law. Isn't that kind of weird? I mean, I know we get like tax free holiday weekends and stuff like that. But this seems to be just a little bit different.
You're saying that this is a super important thing and there's a border crisis and all that, but a little less than half the year, the rest of the year, yeah, you know, just kind of do whatever.
I don't understand that part at all. Here's a very important part that I'm not hearing. Enough people talk about, I've got some questions when it comes to a legal document and the way that you word things in the document. So this section is suspensions of the authority. So remember, they shut it down after they have the seven calendar days where it's over 5, 000.
Okay, when do you, when do you reopen it? Doesn't mean it's going to be closed forever. By closed, they mean they're going to put people on buses and take them to legal ports of entry. I assume, because that's not really laid out. Suspensions of authority. The secretary shall suspend activation of the border emergency authority and the procedures not later than 14 calendar days after the date on which the following occurs.
If applicable, so not later than 14 days after one of these things happens. Here we go. In the case of an activation, we'll just say, uh, where they have to do it. Say it's over 5, 000 and they don't have an option. They've got to shut it down. Okay. There is during a period of seven consecutive calendar days, an average of less than 75 percent of the encounter level described.
In that previous paragraph now earlier what we read from CBS and what I even heard Ben Shapiro say today was what CBS said that the emergency would be deactivated when the average number of daily border crossings drops by 75 percent. That's not what it says. It says when the number is less than 75 percent of the number that triggered the emergency authority.
for instance, if it's 6, 000 and that's the average over 7 days, well over the next 7 day period, because they've done such a great job shutting everything down, 4, 500 and then they can reopen it back up. So, 75 percent of the number. That triggered the emergency authority, not a 75% decline in the number.
In fact, the number needs to decline by 25.01%. So a little bit different there. And here's my question. It says that they have to suspend the emergency authority, not later than 14 days, after this happens. So they hit 75 percent of the encounter level used for activation. Here's my question. What if the encounter level used for activation was 8, 000?
Stick with me here. Say it was 8, 000. And then you get 75 percent of that number the following week. 75 percent of that is 6, 000. Does that mean that they reopen it that week? Because 6, 000 is still technically above the 5, 000 threshold. This document, this law, does not say 75 percent of the encounter level and less than the 5, 000 threshold used to trigger the emergency authority.
It being a It being a legal document, you think you would need to cover that. In fact, it doesn't even refer back to previous times where it stated the 5, 000. I'm just saying, and I would ask for more clarification on this if I were a senator. So if it's 8, 000, they would need to drop it down to 6, 000 to get it reopened.
Now, say you run at 6, 000 for a week after that. Well, that would trigger it to be closed again. And then it could drop down below 4, 500, 75 percent of the number used to trigger the emergency, uh, the week after that. And then everything's all fine, now you can pump it back up to 8, 000 the week after that.
And continuously go on this row of really heavy week, drop it down some, drop it down some. Really heavy week, drop it down some, drop it down some. And in effect what you have Is it still a really, really high amount of people that are coming across the border in what used to be an illegal way? I don't know what you call it after this law gets signed.
Now, I don't know for sure that it's going to go through. A lot of Republicans are saying, like Mike Johnson, who is a real person. he said that this is dead on arrival when it comes in. So maybe there's no way this goes through. Or maybe they change up just a couple things. And it still goes through, or maybe they kick in some more money for Israel, and it still goes through, I don't know, I'm not really sure.
Uh, someone in the group, for everyone listening, the Fed Haters Club, by the way, just said that we should let the states do whatever they want. We'll play, uh, what Governor Greg Abbott is claiming has happened at Eagle Pass, uh, since they started putting up their razor wire and they took control of this area.
Maybe that's a way that you protect the border, I don't know. I'm just speaking to people who are concerned about the border problem, think it's a border crisis, think that maybe we should have a secure border, and the question to me is, is that what this bill does? Because Democrats are out there saying, well we offered them a way to secure the border, this is a harsh law.
That gives Biden the authority to shut down the border and they just don't want to do it because they want Trump to win the, uh, the election in November and they don't want President Biden to be able to fix the border problem. And me, when I look at this, I see this does nothing to fix the border problem.
You could still stay at 5, 000 or one less than that. Every single day, and everything's fine. And I guess at that point, it follows the law. Right? I don't know. Uh, let's look at a couple other things. Emergency suspension of authority. Here's the other really interesting part. Now this is a law. And it's signed and enacted.
By, by Congress, the people, the people's voices. But, if the President finds that it is in the national interest to temporarily suspend the Border Emergency Authority, the President may direct the Secretary to suspend use of Border Emergency Authority on an emergency basis. So if the Border Emergency Authority has an emergency, then you trigger super duper double emergency powers that the President's gonna have.
And he'll be able to actually stop this law from even being able to do what it's supposed to be doing in the first place. Which, to me, is pretty dangerous if you're a Republican considering voting for this, and you think, well, maybe this is going to help Biden out. It could help him out to the election.
Say he somehow wins re election. He could just say, well, yeah, we're not going to do that anymore. Yeah, we totally just did that so we could win the election. Pretty weird.
Oh, here's the other part. Probably could have mentioned this earlier. During any activation of the Border Emergency Authority under subsection, doesn't matter.
The Secretary shall maintain the capacity to process and continue processing a minimum of 1, 400 inadmissible aliens each calendar day cumulatively across all Southwest land border ports of entry in a safe and orderly process. Developed by the secretary meaning that even when this is shut down this is where I'm presuming and assuming that this means they're just going to be picking up people and taking them to a Regular ports of entry they have to process it says minimum There's no maximum doesn't say maximum amount of 5, 000 or anything like that It says a minimum of 1, 400 inadmissible aliens each day While the emergency authority is in effect.
Once again, a little bit weird for a border security law, in my opinion, uh, for the purpose of calculating the numbers, the 5, 000, the 4, 000, uh, the secretary shall count all unaccompanied alien children who are nationals of contiguous countries processed at the South, Southwest land border ports of entry, but shall not count such children who are nationals of non.
Contiguous countries, which once again is weird. Why the difference? Why the difference between if you're from a contiguous, if you're from Mexico or if you're from probably Argentinians, uh, you know, fleeing libertarianism. And that's definitely the other people who are coming in. Uh, why the difference in the way that you process those people?
Why do some people count towards the number and other people don't? I don't know, um, the, see, with respect to the term, uh, encounter means you're physically apprehended by the U S CBP, uh, within a hundred miles of the Southwest land border of the United States during the 14 day period, immediately after entry between, between ports of entry, uh, or at the Southern coastal borders during the 14 day period, immediately after entry between ports of entry.
So once again, it has to be within a hundred miles and within two weeks. So you can just hide out or get a hundred miles away. You're totally fine. No problem. Okay, Representative Dan Bishop, uh, had a good thing to say on this last part I wanted to mention. Here's another crazy part before we move on to something else.
In this judicial review section, which comes right after the sections we were just, uh, reading through, it says, notwithstanding any other provision of this act, judicial review of any decision or action in this section shall be governed only by the United States District Court for the District of Columbia.
Which shall have sole and original jurisdiction to hear challenges, whether constitutional or otherwise, to the validity of this section, or any written policy directive, written policy guideline, written procedure, or the implementation thereof, issued by or under the authority of the Secretary. So if any of the regulations or rules, uh, which the Secretary has, uh, the ability to write under this law, they don't go to the local district courts.
The district court for the District of Columbia Is going to have the sole jurisdiction over matters concerning this law. Okay? Uh, Dan Bishop said, Any challenges to the statute or any policy, guideline, or procedure Majorca sees fit to issue will be heard exclusively by the Federal District Court in the swamp.
Tough orders from federal district courts in Texas and Florida will be no more. So you're not going to hear about the 5th Court issues this thing. Nope. Has to go through the one in D. C. I don't know, guys. If you're talking about securing the border, I wouldn't exactly say that this is what's going to do it.
I, I don't understand the whole thing of, uh, up to 5, 000 is fine. I don't understand the part where you're only going to do this for a limited amount of days during the year. Like if the border Invasion is really bad and it's shut down for 180 days. You just got to open it up after that. There's just no way you can keep it going.
I don't understand why a law would do that. Why would you, why would you set a limit on the amount of days that you can enforce a law? Someone tell me why.