Senate rejects unsuccessful border agreement amid bipartisan resistance

The Senate rejected a bipartisan border deal on Thursday in a vote that Republicans denounced as “political theater” ahead of the November election.

The border bill, originally tied to a larger package on foreign aid, failed on the Senate floor in February, with all but four Republicans lining up against it.

Senate Democrats framed the second attempt, this time a standalone vote, as a chance to demonstrate Washington’s seriousness about getting border security done. Meanwhile, Republicans regarded the move as designed to give political cover to vulnerable Democrats up for reelection.

Similar to the February vote, Democrats saw a handful of defections, among them Latino and progressive lawmakers who viewed the bill as too draconian. There were two new additions on Thursday: Sens. Cory Booker (D-NJ) and Laphonza Butler (D-CA).

In a dramatic reversal, Sen. James Lankford (R-OK), the Republican who negotiated the bill with Senate Democrats and the White House, voted against it, as did all GOP senators with the exception of Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK).

The final vote tally was 43-50.

Thursday’s vote, the first procedural step on the bill, served to underscore the enduring impact of the border crisis ahead of the November election, as well as the difficulty of getting immigration legislation through Congress.

Lankford, along with the two other senators at the center of negotiations, had hoped to advance the first major piece of legislation in decades on the issue but instead resorted to finger-pointing with his Democratic counterpart, Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT), ahead of the vote.

“This is not a bill. This is a prop now,” Lankford told the Washington Examiner, lamenting the lack of outreach from Senate Democrats this time around. “If we’re going to have an actual debate, you don’t just throw it on the floor and say, we’re going to vote on this again.”

Murphy bristled at the accusation. “Forgive me if I don’t want to throw away four months of really hard, difficult work,” he responded. “Every single word of this bill was exhaustively negotiated with Republicans, including the Senate Republican leader, so it’s just bulls*** to suggest that this is some political show vote.”

Republicans spent months demanding the compromise in exchange for Ukraine aid, but ultimately backed away from the final deal.

Democrats gave concessions including new asylum restrictions and limits on humanitarian parole, but a provision giving President Joe Biden the authority to shut down the border once crossings reach 4,000 a day doomed its prospects.

Republicans warned that it would codify a certain level of illegal immigration as acceptable, a claim the deal’s negotiators denied.

Democrats ultimately blamed former President Donald Trump’s opposition to the bill for its failure, claiming Republicans wanted to keep a political flashpoint in play for the presidential election. Republicans countered the bill would have given Biden political cover without actually solving the border crisis.

Congress went on to pass Ukraine aid with the immigration proposal stripped out.

The border is no less potent an issue three months later. Democrat Jon Tester, attempting to hold on to his seat in deep-red Montana, has tacked to the right on immigration. Earlier this month, he became the first Democrat to co-sponsor the Laken Riley Act, which would require the Department of Homeland Security to detain suspected criminal aliens.

Meanwhile, he and a slate of vulnerable Democrats voted for the border bill on Thursday, including Sens. Sherrod Brown of Ohio, Bob Casey of Pennsylvania, Jacky Rosen of Nevada, and Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin.

Ahead of the vote, Democrats warned Republicans against blocking a deal that had been crafted in the spirit of bipartisanship. The messaging reflected an attempt to put the party on defense on an issue that is generally regarded as a Democratic liability.

Biden, who is expected to implement many of the deal’s components through executive action, continues to receive low approval ratings for his handling of the border.

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Republicans, in an effort led by Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT), attempted to counter that line of attack over the last week, requesting unanimous consent on a total of 13 bills that were blocked from receiving floor consideration by the Democrats.

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) asked to proceed to H.R. 2, the Republican-led House’s flagship border bill, while Sen. Bill Hagerty (R-TN) brought forward a bill to add a citizenship question to the census.

“At every opportunity, Democrats refused to even consider this legislation,” Lee said in a statement. “Their politically motivated failure theater can’t hide the fact that they are the party responsible for this crisis and they are the party blocking solutions in the U.S. Senate.”