Congressional Hispanic Caucus members were able to voice their concerns over the weekend with the terms being discussed in the bipartisan Senate border security negotiations.
CHC members took part in a Zoom call Saturday afternoon with White House chief of staff Jeff Zients and Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, a source familiar with the matter tells the Washington Examiner. The weekend call followed weeks of requests by Hispanic lawmakers to be included in and apprised of the status of the package.
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The White House did not respond to the Washington Examiner’s request for comment on the Zoom meeting, which came between a flurry of meetings involving Mayorkas and negotiators on Capitol Hill.
A bipartisan working group of senators has spent weeks negotiating a border security deal that would be added to a defense spending bill that includes aid for Ukraine, Israel, and Taiwan. Negotiators on both sides have acknowledged that the border measure is critical to passing the legislation through both chambers.
Negotiators stayed in Washington, D.C., over the weekend to meet about the potential deal and will continue talks this week. Their Senate colleagues will join them starting on Monday, when the upper chamber will gather despite it being Christmas recess to begin confirming the 11 stalled four-star generals held over from Sen. Tommy Tuberville’s (R-AL) blanket hold on military promotions.
Sens. James Lankford (R-OK) and Chris Murphy (D-CT) have been leading the negotiations, which have centered largely on changes to federal asylum policy and how the Biden administration uses the humanitarian parole authority. Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (I-AZ) has also been heavily involved in the talks.
There have also been reports that the White House has offered to establish a new border expulsion law and increase mandatory detention rates as part of the negotiations.
Working alongside Murphy, Lankford, and Sinema are Sens. Michael Bennet (D-CO), Thom Tillis (R-NC), and Lindsey Graham (R-SC), all of whom are Caucasian.
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That fact has irked a number of Hispanic lawmakers, including Sens. Alex Padilla (D-CA) and Bob Menendez (D-NJ), the latter of whom led the bipartisan immigration talks in the Senate that produced the 2013 deal that famously died in the House.
Asked about that issue while leaving negotiations on Sunday, Murphy replied: “Ultimately, we’re trying to craft something that gets a big bipartisan vote and that obviously can’t happen unless you’re listening to your colleagues.”
