Senate border talks broaden to include Afghan evacuees, migrant work permits and high-skilled visas

Washington — While focused on plans to deter illegal border crossings, the ongoing immigration negotiations in the Senate have also included conversations about Afghan evacuees, the children of high-skilled visa-holders, and work permits for asylum-seekers, three people familiar with the talks told CBS News.

For weeks, the Biden administration and a bipartisan group of lawmakers in the Senate have been trying to strike a deal on a series of policies they hope will reduce unlawful border crossings, which have reached all-time highs over the past three years. Top Biden administration officials, led by White House deputy chief of staff Natalie Quillian, have repeatedly met with Senate negotiators — Republican James Lankford, Democrat Chris Murphy and independent Kyrsten Sinema — each week since mid-December.

Up until recently, the talks centered on tightening U.S. asylum laws, with negotiators focused on plans to allow border agents to swiftly expel migrants when a certain level in illegal crossings is reached, raise the standard to pass asylum interviews and expand expedited deportations of families traveling with children.

But negotiators have put other immigration items on the table, the three sources said, requesting anonymity to discuss closed-door talks. Most notably, there have been discussions to have the potential deal include the Afghan Adjustment Act, a bill that would allow tens of thousands of Afghans evacuated from Taliban-controlled Afghanistan to gain permanent legal status. Those evacuees are currently in legal limbo, unless they have been granted asylum or special visas for those who assisted American military forces.

Also under consideration is a plan to provide relief to the children of immigrants working in the U.S. on H-1B visas for high-skilled workers. This population, known as "Documented Dreamers," often face self-deportation when they turn 21 because they lose the legal status derived from their parents' visas.

Another proposal being negotiated would make certain migrants eligible to work in the U.S. legally if they pass their preliminary asylum interviews. The plan would likely be welcomed by Democratic leaders who have complained about receiving large numbers of migrants who can't work and sustain themselves.

The three items under discussion, which have not been previously reported, could make it easier for Democrats to support a border deal that, if finalized, would likely include stricter asylum and deportation provisions that have already alarmed progressives and advocates for migrants. But they may also fuel some divisions within Republicans ranks, since conservatives have increasingly rejected efforts to legalize immigrants or grant them work permits.

While all sides have signaled progress in recent weeks, the White House and Senate negotiators have not reached a final deal on overhauling U.S. border policy, which Republicans have said is a prerequisite to them supporting further military aid to Ukraine. 

The main sticking point centers on the immigration parole authority, a 1950s law the Biden administration has used at an unprecedented scale to resettle refugee-like populations — such as the Afghan evacuees and Ukrainians fleeing the Russian invasion — and to divert migrants away from the U.S. border by offering them opportunities to enter the country legally. While it does not offer recipients permanent legal status, parole allows federal officials to quickly welcome foreigners who would otherwise not be eligible to enter the country.

After telling congressional Democrats it would reject any limits on parole, the White House has recently put revisions to it on the table, recognizing that there's no path to a deal without it since Republicans have not dropped the demand, people familiar with the internal deliberations said. Still, the administration does not want to see the authority gutted, since it has relied on it so heavily to reduce pressure at the U.S. southern border. 

One limit suggested by Republican lawmakers — who view the administration's use of parole as an abuse of the authority — would impose a numerical cap on the number of people who could be allowed to enter the U.S. via parole.

Negotiators eye harsher asylum laws

While the White House and lawmakers have continued to debate limits on parole, they have reached a general consensus on the border-related provisions, including making initial asylum screenings, known as credible fear interviews, harder to pass.

They have also been working on plans to expand a fast-track deportation program for families traveling with children and the creation of a legal authority that would allow the U.S. to summarily expel migrants to Mexico.

One proposal being considered would empower border officials to expel migrant adults and families from the U.S. unless they affirmatively ask for asylum, three sources said. The expulsions would be carried out similarly to those authorized by Title 42, the Trump-era pandemic-related order that expired last year. But it would be triggered by a certain threshold in migrant crossings, not public health conditions.

Those who are not expelled because they affirmatively claim fear of being persecuted in Mexico would undergo an asylum screening with a heightened, more-difficult-to-pass standard while in U.S. custody. Migrants who fail these interviews would be expelled from the U.S., while those who pass them would generally be released into the U.S. with access to work permits.

The Biden administration's openness to stricter border measures and sweeping restrictions on asylum, some of which resemble Trump-era policies, represents a remarkable shift. Early on in his tenure, President Biden vowed to "restore" the U.S. asylum system and reject Trump-era policies that "contravened our values and caused needless human suffering."

"We're a nation that says, 'If you want to flee and you're fleeing oppression, you should come,'" Mr. Biden said during one of the Democratic primary debates in 2019.

But three years into his presidency, Mr. Biden finds himself facing a humanitarian, operational and political crisis at the U.S.-Mexico border of unprecedented proportions. Over two-third of Americans disapprove of Mr. Biden's handling of the situation there, according to a recent CBS News poll. More recently, Democratic mayors of cities struggling to house migrants have joined Republicans in criticizing the White House's response to the crisis.

Of late, about a quarter-million migrants per month have been processed by U.S. border authorities. In December alone, Customs and Border Protection processed more than 300,000 migrants at and in between official ports of entry along the southern border — a record high.

In:
• Biden Administration
• United States Senate
• U.S.-Mexico Border
• Migrants

Camilo Montoya-Galvez

Camilo Montoya-Galvez is the immigration reporter at CBS News. Based in Washington, he covers immigration policy and politics.

Twitter