Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) on Sunday told President Joe Biden to take executive action on the migrant crisis if negotiators cannot finalize the bipartisan border security deal soon.
Manchin made the comments during an appearance on CBS’s Face the Nation while discussing how Biden could improve his performance as November looms. The West Virginia senator, who is not ruling out a third-party bid for the presidency, said the Biden administration needed to rethink how it handles the border as illegal crossings consistently set new records.
“The greatest crisis we’re facing right now is the border, and it’s dangerous,” Manchin said. “If Congress cannot do its job, because the perfect is the enemy of the good, it’s just not perfect enough for the Democrats or Republicans, or it’s gone too far or not far enough, the president has to step forward and declare an emergency.”
“I don’t believe there should be any more paroles at the border until we can get a handle on what’s going on,” he continued. “It’s just extremely bad right now.”
A bipartisan working group of senators has spent more than a month negotiating a border security deal, which 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.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), who has been Ukraine’s staunchest GOP ally since Russia launched its war last February, has said he supports the larger supplemental package as long as it includes “credible” border policy changes.
Sen. James Lankford (R-OK) and Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT) have been leading the negotiations, which have centered 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, though no one from the Senate working group or the Biden administration has confirmed as much publicly.
For his part, House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) has insisted in public that the border provision in Biden’s defense legislation be the Senate’s version of H.R. 2, House Republicans’ signature border bill. Senate GOP negotiators, however, have pushed back on the notion that they are demanding Democrats agree to H.R. 2.
Negotiations now largely center on disputes over parole system reforms, which remain the biggest sticking point.
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Pressed on if he was suggesting that Biden abandon those negotiations and take executive action, Manchin replied: “I’m saying put a deadline. If it doesn’t happen this week, this is such a crisis and it’s a dangerous crisis at the border, the president might have to take executive action, declaring a national crisis at the border.
“Do what needs to be done to shut that border down and secure it until we can get a handle, or until the legislature can come to an agreement,” he explained. “But leaving it open, thinking that we’re all going to be kumbaya and it’s all going to come together, is not the prudent course to take, I believe.”
