Credit: (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)WASHINGTON – Lawmakers on the right flank of the Republican Party this week disrupted a mix of bills pending in Congress, including bipartisan immigration legislation and bills that include aid for U.S. allies.
In a series of linked events on Capitol Hill, hard-right Republicans, including members of the New Jersey delegation, jeopardized financial help for three American allies — Israel, Ukraine and Taiwan — and all but tanked the first proposal to overhaul federal immigration policy and the control of the U.S.-Mexico border that has emerged with bipartisan support in years.
On Monday morning, it was possible Congress could pass an immigration bill, send foreign aid abroad and impeach the head of the Department of Homeland Security, Alejandro Mayorkas, in a matter of days or weeks.
But by Tuesday night, none of those outcomes were clear, and Republicans in the House had failed to muster the votes to impeach Mayorkas, falling short in dramatic fashion.
The dizzying sequence underscored the difficulty for Republicans of leading the House with a slim majority, highlighting policy differences within the New Jersey delegation and thwarting Democrats and the Biden administration from notching a political victory on immigration — a topic Republicans view as a weak spot for President Joe Biden as he seeks reelection.
There are 219 Republicans in the House, 212 Democrats and 4 vacant seats, giving the majority party little room for error.
What Van Drew, Menendez disliked
The cascade of developments began Sunday, when senators unveiled a bipartisan bill that included about $119 billion for immigration programs and foreign aid to Israel, Gaza, Ukraine and Taiwan.
Endorsed by the White House and the conservative U.S. Border Patrol Union, that bill is the outcome of months of negotiations between Oklahoma Republican James Lankford, Arizona Independent Krysten Sinema and Connecticut Democrat Chris Murphy.
Credit: (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)But many Republicans in Congress quickly savaged the bill, including House Speaker Mike Johnson, a Republican from Louisiana, who said the bill was a nonstarter in the chamber he leads.
Rep. Jeff Van Drew (R-2nd), who said on the website X, formerly Twitter, that the bill was not sufficient in securing the U.S. border crossing with Mexico, called it “absolutely outrageous” and said a Republican-written bill that passed the House last year without any votes from Democrats was “a baseline.” That bill is a nonstarter with Democrats across Washington.
The legislation also drew criticism from New Jersey’s senators, Bob Menendez and Cory Booker, both Democrats.
“This package — which we have just begun to study — doesn’t exactly inspire confidence,” Menendez said. “These changes are permanent in nature without any meaningful relief for the 12 million undocumented immigrants in the country, including Dreamers that have lived here for a decade or more.”
Booker’s qualms
The “dreamers” are people brought to the U.S. without documentation as children.
Booker also has qualms about the deal. In a procedural vote Wednesday afternoon, Booker voted to proceed with the legislation. That Republicans move quickly against the deal after it was negotiated privately for months has “been appalling,” Booker said in a statement. “This is some of the worst of Washington I’ve seen.”
Members of both parties bundled the immigration legislation with funding for Ukraine, Israel, Gaza and Taiwan to try to get enough votes for everything.
Yet some of the immigration of the elements gave him pause, like the omission of a citizenship path for dreamers and farmworkers, Booker said. “There are real safety and security issues at the border, and to fix them we must pass comprehensive immigration reform,” he said. “The way to correct the deficiencies of the deal is to continue debating them.”
The Senate’s procedural vote did not pass, nor did a separate vote on a stand-alone bill to fund aid to Israel.
The broader immigration and foreign assistance package includes $8 billion for Immigration and Customs Enforcement, a federal agency, and $4 billion for U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services to accelerate the review of asylum claims. That sum would in part go to hiring more than 4,300 asylum officers.
Key stumbling block
A key point for immigration hardliners, the bill would direct the Department of Homeland Security to close the border with Mexico if more than 8,500 crossings by undocumented migrants occurred in a single day.
The department would also be empowered to close the border if crossings averaged more than 4,000 daily in a given week.
Members of both parties bundled the immigration legislation with funding for Ukraine, Israel, Gaza and Taiwan to try to get enough votes for everything.
Former President Donald Trump’s allies in Congress broadly oppose more funding for Ukraine, nearly two years into its defensive war against Russia, while some progressives condemn more funding for Israel.
Beyond immigration programs, the deal includes $60 billion for Ukraine, $14.1 billion for Israel, $2.44 billion for U.S. Central Command, $10 billion for humanitarian aid in Gaza, $4.83 billion for “regional partners in the Indo-Pacific and [to] deter aggression by the Chinese government” and $2.33 billion to help Ukrainians displaced by the Russian invasion, according to a Senate Appropriations Committee summary.
Biden blames Trump
On Monday, Biden acknowledged that “all indications are this bill won’t even move forward to the Senate floor,” blaming Trump for urging allies in Congress to sink it.
“Why?” he asked in a speech Monday at the White House. “A simple reason: Donald Trump. Because Donald Trump thinks it’s bad for him politically.” Pressing for support, Biden urged lawmakers to “show some spine” and back the deal.
Speaking at a fundraiser Wednesday in New York City, held by former Goldman Sachs financer Larry Linden, Biden said Trump was running roughshod over congressional Republicans. “Never thought I’d see something like I’m seeing now,” Biden said, according to a pool report from the White House. Republicans are “walking away because they’ve got Donald Trump calling and threatening them.”
Yet the Trump-aligned wing of the Republican Party came up short Tuesday night, when all but three Republicans voted to impeach Mayorkas, head of DHS.
Kean, Smith, Van Drew vote to impeach
The three New Jersey Republicans — Tom Kean, Chris Smith and Van Drew — voted to impeach, while the nine Democrats in the delegation voted against impeachment.
As the vote lingered at a 215-215 tie, Democrats shouted repeatedly “order,” calling for the vote to be closed. Minutes later, a Utah Republican, Blake Moore, switched his vote to no, meaning Republicans can bring up the impeachment measure again.
The tie only happened after Rep. Al Green, a progressive Democrat from Texas, rushed back from surgery to cast a no vote, forcing the deadlock.
Kean said he voted to impeach Mayorkas because the secretary has not followed domestic immigration law. “I believe his actions, from the very moment he took office, were a willful and systemic refusal to comply with federal law and a clear breach of public trust,” Kean said.
Republicans have argued to impeach Mayorkas on two articles, “willful and systemic refusal to comply with the law” and “breach of public trust.”
Nonpartisan experts are largely skeptical of the case against Mayorkas, a former federal prosecutor.
House Republicans are expected to try to impeach Mayorkas again, possibly as soon as Friday.
If Mayorkas is impeached, he would not be removed from office unless convicted in a two-thirds majority vote in the Senate.
Spokespeople for Smith and Van Drew did not respond to requests for comment about why they voted to impeach.
After the impeachment vote stalled Tuesday, House Republicans cued up a $17 billion aid bill for Israel, but that was voted down too, after right-leaning Republicans and left-leaning Democrats voted against it.
Rep. Mikie Sherrill (D-11th) said she supports the Senate bill teetering in Congress, saying of Republican efforts to tank that legislation at Trump’s urging: “I could say a lot of things about that, some of them unprintable.”
Sherrill added, “Israel and our allies in Ukraine and the Asia-Pacific need our support, and Americans deserve leadership. The people of Gaza deserve humanitarian relief and a better future.”
House Republicans are expected to try to impeach Mayorkas again, possibly as soon as Friday.
