Black immigration advocates are pleased that a highly-contested bipartisan border deal failed in the U.S. Senate.
On Wednesday, the U.S. Senate tanked the Border Security and Combatting Fentanyl Supplemental Appropriations Act, 2024, in a 49-50 vote, coming short of the 60 votes needed to pass the legislation.
Amy Fischer, advocacy director for the Americas with Amnesty International, told theGrio that she is happy that “the cruel policies included in the deal are not moving forward.”
“I think it is disappointing that the reason it failed was more as a result of political dysfunction rather than a stand against the inhumane policies in the bill,” she said.
Maribel Hernández Rivera, director of policy and government affairs for border and immigration at the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), told theGrio she felt “a sigh of relief” that the immigration deal “did not go through.”
Rivera called the deal “cruel” and argued that it would’ve “hurt the most vulnerable people in a way that is unprecedented.”
Earlier this week, some Senate Republicans said they would vote against the bill, contending that it was not the answer to regulating the U.S. border. Even if the statute passed in the U.S. Senate, House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., called the deal “dead on arrival.”
Johnson issued a statement on social media Monday, stating, “We will not pass immigration legislation that further incentivizes illegal immigration, does not reform asylum and parole in a meaningful way.”
Fischer of Amnesty International said Senate Republicans voted against the border legislation because “it wasn’t extreme enough and were engaging in political posturing ahead of the election.”
She said, on the contrary, Senate Democrats did not oppose the legislation because they felt pressured to stand with the Biden-Harris administration.
“The vote was less about substance and more about politics,”…
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