Carl P. Leubsdorf

Anyone who wonders why Congress hasn’t passed immigration legislation for decades need only look at the political shenanigans surrounding the current bipartisan Senate effort to cope with the issue.

Once again, the roadblocks are House Republicans, who don’t believe in the concept of compromise, and Donald Trump, who prefers an issue to a solution that might politically benefit President Joe Biden – not to mention help the country.

The House GOP, under its Trumpist new speaker, Mike Johnson, has contended all along that it won’t settle for anything less than the stricter measure it passed last year, though Biden and the Senate have rejected it. A recent comment to CNN by Texas Rep. Troy Nehls typifies its mindset: “I’m not willing to do too damn much right now to help a Democrat and to help Joe Biden’s approval rating.”

Its approach to the immigration problem is to impeach Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas for “egregious misconduct” for failing to shut the porous Southern border, even though some neutral legal experts said that doesn’t meet the constitutional standard of “high crimes and misdemeanors.”

Meanwhile, Trump, on the verge of clinching the GOP presidential nomination, is lobbying Republican lawmakers against the compromise being hashed out by a bipartisan group of senators. The reason: He wants to campaign against Biden on the issue and be free, if elected, to institute his own draconian plan of shutting the border and deporting millions of immigrants who are here illegally.

That put Republicans “in a quandary,” Senate GOP Leader Mitch McConnell told his colleagues last week, declaring “we don’t want to do anything to undermine” Trump. McConnell suggested he might reconsider his prior support for using a border compromise to help pass aid for Ukraine, Israel, and Taiwan.

When McConnell’s comments became public, Republican senators who have been working for more than a month to craft a bipartisan compromise reacted strongly, and the GOP leader reiterated that he still backs a package solution.

“I didn’t come here to have the president as a boss or a candidate as a boss,” North Carolina Sen. Thom Tillis said. “I came here to pass good, solid policy.” He called it “immoral for me to think you looked the other way because you think this is the linchpin for President Trump to win.”

Utah Sen. Mitt Romney was even more direct. “The fact that (Trump) would communicate to Republican senators and Congress people that he doesn’t want us to solve the border problem — because he wants to blame Biden for it — is really appalling,” he told reporters.

Still, the House GOP – which acts like it is a branch of the Trump campaign –remains the chief barrier to passing legislation this year, though Senate action may also depend on how many GOP senators are willing to defy Trump.

“Remember,” cautioned Indiana Sen. Mike Braun, “that’s the political force we’re dealing with.”

If this sounds depressingly familiar, it should. A decade ago, 14 Republican senators joined all Democrats in a 68-32 vote for a bipartisan measure providing a path to citizenship for millions of immigrants who came here illegally and enhanced border security. It resulted from months of negotiations by a so-called “gang of eight” senators from both parties.

Though analysts said there likely was a similar bipartisan majority in the House, then-GOP Speaker John Boehner refused to bring the bill to the floor, because it lacked majority support from Republican members, and it died.

In 2019, Trump killed a more modest immigration compromise, during the month-long government shutdown caused by congressional refusal to fund the border wall that was one of his prime 2016 campaign promises.

At a White House meeting with senators from both parties, Trump agreed to a plan providing the border wall funds in return for legalizing the hundreds of thousands of “Dreamers” brought here illegally as small children.

But after hardline White House adviser Stephen Miller weighed in, Trump reversed himself later the same day and rejected the deal.

In the past three years, Biden has been unable through administrative actions to stem the substantial increase in illegal entries that resulted in part from his liberalization of border procedures and the expectation by asylum seekers that they would get more lenient treatment.

More recently, the administration has come under political pressure from northern Democratic mayors and governors trying to cope with the influx of illegal migrants sent their way by Republican critics of the administration’s policies, like Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.

Senate Republicans refused to consider Biden’s proposal of $106 billion in additional aid for Ukraine, Israel, and Taiwan unless it was accompanied by measures to cope with the border crisis. The administration joined the negotiations, and, recognizing the issue’s political potency, Biden reversed his position and said he would enforce any measure that passed, including one authorizing him to shut the border if illegal crossings persist.

Majority Leader Chuck Schumer hopes for action soon on the measure being drafted by Oklahoma Republican James Langford, Connecticut Democrat Chris Murphy, and Arizona Independent Kyrsten Sinema. It would substantially tighten procedures for those seeking asylum and the officials handling their cases.

But there is no guarantee it will pass the Senate, let alone the House. Still, Senate Republicans warned that, because of the administration’s support, it’s the best chance in years to pass legislation to deal with the border problem – if that’s their goal.

Carl P. Leubsdorf is the former Washington bureau chief of the Dallas Morning News. Readers may write to him via email at [email protected].