Republicans Unite To Block Border Bill Again As Election Year Fight Heats Up

WASHINGTON — The Senate rejected for a second time a border security package Republicans helped draft in February before turning around and killing it at the demand of former President Donald Trump, their presumptive 2024 nominee, who didn’t want to give President Joe Biden an election-year win.

Only Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska.)voted to advance the measure on Thursday. Several progressive Democrats also opposed the bill.

The legislation would give the president new emergency authority to restrict border crossings if daily average migrant encounters reach a certain level, raise the standard of proof for granting asylum, expedite asylum processing and give more money to border patrol agents, among other measures.

GOP senators accused Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) of playing politics by scheduling a vote on a bill they had previously rejected, an effort they said was really aimed at bolstering the campaigns of vulnerable Democratic incumbents in the Senate.

“This bill today is a prop, it’s a pure messaging vote and a fundraising piece for Democrats to be able to run out and say, ‘See, we want to do border security and those rascally Republicans don’t want to do it,’ which is absolutely absurd,” Sen. James Lankford (R-Okla.) said Thursday on Newsmax.

Lankford, who helped negotiate the border provisions with a small bipartisan group earlier this year, previously complained about his GOP colleagues bailing on a proposed border crackdown that had been endorsed by the conservative Border Patrol union. He did not disavow the actual content of the legislation, which he voted for in February and against on Thursday.

“We need to get together, stop the politics and the messaging and the Democrat fundraising