April 27 (UPI) -- House Republicans officially introduced a combined immigration reform package on Thursday after agreeing on provisions they say will clamp down on asylum-seekers and finish building a southern border wall.
House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La.; Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan, R-Ohio; Homeland Security Committee Chairman Mark Green, R-Tenn.; and other House leaders touted what they called a "strong border security package" at a Capitol Hill press conference following a lengthy series of closed-door negotiations among feuding GOP lawmakers.
Scalise said the package will be brought to the floor of the House next month just as pandemic-era restrictions on asylum-seeking contained in Title 42 are set to expire on May 11 when the federal COVID-19 emergency measures are lifted.
The majority leader said that when lawmakers return in May, "the same week that Title 42 expires, we're going to bring a border security package and pass it through this House of Representatives. We challenge President [Joe] Biden to work with us to solve this problem. We're going to show the president how to solve the problem."
"We're going to build 900 miles of wall," declared Green, while blasting Biden for "not caring" about U.S. Customs and Border Patrol agents who are being "overwhelmed by this open border."
The package combines two separate immigration reform bills worked on for weeks by the majority Republican members of the House Judiciary and Homeland Security committees.
The main source of friction during the negotiations came with proposals to alter the asylum-seeking process -- moderate Republicans from border districts pushed back against some of the committee members' harshest proposals.
As it stands, the combined bill seeks to restrict who can be eligible to seek asylum, reinstates and expands detention on migrant families, imposes more significant requirements on employers hiring migrants, and boosts penalties for immigration violations, the GOP leaders said.
The bill will almost certainly be voted down in the Democratic-controlled Senate or be vetoed by Biden should it reach his desk.
"The bill before us today would completely gut our asylum system, take away protections for vulnerable children fleeing for their lives, destroy our economy, indefinitely detain children, and make the situation at the border even worse. And that is just for starters," Rep. Jerrold Nadler, the ranking judiciary committee Democrat, said at its markup last week.
Sen. Bob Menendez, D-N.J., last week announced an immigration reform plan that would rely completely on Biden's executive actions, including increasing legal pathways, protecting migrants and punishing human traffickers.
