New immigration bill would not allow 5,000 illegal crossings per day, despite what Trump says
Does the new immigration bill allow 5,000 illegal border crossings per day as Donald Trump and conservatives keep saying? No. This is what it would do.
WASHINGTON — Former President Donald Trump, House Speaker Mike Johnson and other right-wing Republicans say they oppose an emerging bipartisan immigration deal because it would allow 5,000 migrants to illegally cross the southern border every day.
“It is illegal to cross our border. But apparently, we’re concocting some sort of deal to allow the president to shut down the border after 5,000 people break the law," Johnson, R-La., said Wednesday. "Why is it 5,000? If you add that up, that’d be a million more illegals into our country every year before we take remedial measures. It’s madness. We shouldn’t be asking what kind of enforcement authority kicks in at 5,000 illegal crossings a day, because the number should be zero.”
Trump made a similar claim to reporters Tuesday: "That’s a terrible bill. Five thousand a day? That’s a lot. That’s, like, record-setting stuff."
But that's not actually what the bipartisan deal would do, according to negotiators who are finalizing the details before they release the full text of the legislation, possibly later this week. Here's what we know:
Migrants would not be able to just cross the border illegally under the new bill. It would end the practice of "catch and release," in which Border Patrol agents release migrants into the U.S. while they await immigration hearings.
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