Fallout from the proposed Senate border security deal continued Tuesday as Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) sharply criticized one of the deal’s provisions. The conservative noted that states would be prohibited from suing the Biden administration in local courts over its failure to protect the nation’s borders.
On Sunday evening, the upper chamber revealed the text of the $118 billion “bipartisan” border security bill. Tens of billions in new assistance is earmarked for the Ukraine war.
Cruz noted the proposal gave “sole and original jurisdiction” to the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia to hear states’ challenges to the White House. The senator told Newsweek that Texas has successfully taken this route multiple times over the past three years.
The Republican observed that cases would now be heard in Washington instead of Texas.
Cruz cited the “superabundance of liberal judges” and declared it was by design. He said the Biden White House is fed up with “losing in Texas district courts and the Fifth Circuit.”
The Emergency National Security Supplemental Bill clearly stipulated that D.C. courts will “hear challenges, whether constitutional or otherwise, to the validity of this section or any written policy directive, written policy guideline, written procedure or the implementation thereof.”
My views on the border bill have not been ambiguous.
The good news: This bill is dead on arrival.
The border bill is just terrible. pic.twitter.com/I6DaN9YExQ
— Senator Ted Cruz (@SenTedCruz) February 6, 2024
The senator directed much of his ire at GOP leadership in the upper chamber — particularly Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) and Sen. James Lankford (R-OK), the chief proponent of the controversial measure.
Cruz called the process a “disaster” and “terrible.”
He gave credit to Chuck Schumer (D-NY) for crafting the legislation, which he said “is designed not to secure the border, not just not to secure the border. It’s designed to make it worse.”
The Texas Republican insisted the bill “codifies” the current border crisis and “normalizes” allowing 5,000 illegal migrants into the country every single day.
Cruz applied simple math to illustrate the disaster the bill would enshrine. “That works out to 1.8 million a year. That works out to about 6 million illegal immigrants over the three years of Biden.”
Speaking on Fox News’ “Hannity,” Cruz doubled down on his assertion that the best path forward for the Republican Party may be replacing McConnell as the Senate Majority Leader.
