Shouting Match at Senate Lunch Ensues Over Border Deal

On Tuesday, during a lunch break, Senate conservatives voiced their frustrations with their GOP colleagues’ negotiation tactics over an emerging border security deal, which could tie funding for the border with foreign aid to Ukraine and other countries as well as allow the equivalent of 5,000 migrants to enter the United States daily, The Hill reported.

During the lunch meeting, GOP Sens. Mike Lee of Utah, Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, and Ted Cruz of Texas expressed frustration over not being informed about the finer details of the bill. Reportedly, they discussed that this deal could potentially harm the Republican Party’s chances of retaining control of the House in the 2024 election, as doing the deal may cause more harm than doing nothing.

“Several points of view came out,” Sen. Mike Braun, R-Ind., said, referring to tying the border to Ukraine, “at decibel levels a little higher than normal.”

“I think it’s because it’s taken so long, and now there’s talk about maybe getting something to the floor and voting on it in a day or two. I think that would cause a real uproar. It’s going to be a large, complicated bill to where you don’t have adequate amount of time to pour through it properly.”

Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., said the question of tying foreign aid with the border divided the Senate, and nowhere was that more apparent than today.

“The caucus is very much split on sending more money to Ukraine but also to the border aspect to it,” Paul said.

Lee said the frustration stemmed from fears by the senators they’re being “set up” to rush through the lengthy legislation before the President’s Day recess.

Lee stressed the Senate needed more time to parse the complex legislation: “We’ve been through these things so many times where we’re told, ‘Oh, there’s not a deal yet, not a deal, not a deal.’ All of a sudden: ‘Oh, there’s [a] deal.’ And then we are given the equivalent of a snap election, like a snap vote, without really any opportunity to read it and no opportunity to amend it.”

Lee also raised concerns about the secretive nature of the negotiations, pointing to the fact the entire conference has been shut out except for Sen. James Lankford, R-Okla., the Senate GOP’s lead negotiator.

“What we don’t want is to receive bill text and then be asked to vote on it the next day or the next day after that or a very short period of time,” Lee said following the lunch. “We are, by any definition of that word, being shut out. I don’t understand, I genuinely don’t understand — I have great respect for James Lankford — but I literally don’t understand why this makes sense … to have one person from the conference who has access to everything they’re negotiating, everything they’re discussing, and the rest of us are shut out.”

The contentious deal includes a proposal granting the president authority to expel migrants, but only once 5,000 migrants have entered the U.S. illegally.

Paul criticized this aspect, stating, “Many people feel that letting 5,000 in a day before you get aggressive — that would be 1.8 million [people] a year — that’s an unacceptable baseline.”

Johnson voiced similar concerns: “First, do no harm. You got a 5,000-person threshold and then you automatically shut down the border. How do you do that?”

Cruz questioned the bill’s viability in the House and its potential political cost for House Republicans. A fellow GOP senator relayed Cruz’s concerns, “His worry is we’re giving a black eye to House Republicans when they don’t need a black eye.”

Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell, Ky., admitted uncertainty about the House’s response to a Senate-passed bill. Braun speculated that the Senate’s decision might not align with the House’s expectations, “I think this is a tricky dynamic to get something that would come out of the Senate that would end up being politically palatable to the House.”

Meanwhile, the deal comes as the Texas National Guard appears to be defying the Supreme Court’s order granting the federal government authority over Texas to cut razor wire, which would ostensibly allow for the continued flow of illegal migration.

However, Epoch Times reporter Charlotte Cuthbertson posted to X on Tuesday that the Texas National Guard was continuing to set up razor wire along Eagle Pass.