US Senators proposed a new Immigration Bill to address Southern Border situation

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On Thursday, Two US Senators have proposed a new immigration bill to address the rising levels of migrants at the southern border. The new bill was presented by Republican Senator John Cornyn and Democratic Senator Kyrsten Sinema. It would supposedly increase the country’s capacity to manage the historically high numbers of migrants, increase the speed of adjudicating asylum claims, aid local communities along the border, ensure migrants are treated humanely, and unaccompanied migrant children are protected. The supposed legislation would create 4 regional processing centers to deal with the current flow of migration. Point to be noted that Sinema and Cornyn wrote a letter and pressured the Biden administration. They urged President Biden to address border security and the asylum process.

Both senators are also part of a bipartisan group of senators. They met in March and now on Wednesday to discuss a legislative path forward on immigration. A member of the group, Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin said after Wednesday’s meeting that the starting points in regards to legislation are the 2 House immigration bills that were both approved on a bipartisan basis in March. Durbin added that the group would also design to address border security, but acknowledged the complexity of the problem. He said, “It’s not a simple issue of, do this and it’s fixed. It involves so many things”. Cornyn called the bill a starting point (in a press conference) because it’s meant to address the most urgent need for immigration.

Both senators said they were open to finding ways to get this legislation passed, whether through a standalone bill or as part of a broader legislative package. Cornyn said, “We’ve seen the difficulty of doing so-called comprehensive immigration reform. So far, we haven’t been successful in doing that all the time I’ve been in the Senate. So, my hope is we would start, we’d take this first step, and then we would build from there”. Sinema said, “Our goal is to get this passed into law, and so, we’re going to go about this in a very practical way of working with everyone we can to get the support we need to pass this legislation.”