Sinema Defends, Explains Bipartisan Border Deal

The bipartisan Senate border deal has been subject to intense scrutiny and outrage by Republicans, so much so that both chambers have rejected it. Senator Kyrsten Sinema (I-AZ) appeared on Fox News's Special Report with Bret Baier to discuss the bill, addressing portions most heavily under fire.

Sen. Sinema began by saying, "Arizona is ground zero for the federal government's failure to address this border crisis over the last four decades," and "the time for talking points is over. The time for action is long past due."

Host Bret Baier examined the most criticized portion of the bipartisan border deal, which supposedly caps illegal border crossings to 5,000 per day before closing the border.

Sen. Sinema explained that "there is some real misunderstanding about this section of the law."

Instead, the bill expands detention beds, and occupants will be "processed and deported right away." Exceptions exist for children and families, instead under supervision, while their asylum claims are processed faster before deportation.

"There still will be days when too many people come to the border, and so to prevent what is currently occurring, which is massive numbers of people being released into the interior, we created this authority, the border emergency authority that says, 'Nope, we just shut it down,' because it is too many people for us to process that quickly and turn away," Sinema continued.

However, Representative Cory Mills (R-FL) pointed out that the cartels can easily skirt around this rule by sending fewer people per day.

Moreover, other Republicans such as Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) and Representative Carlos Gimenez (R-FL) have said President Biden can simply re-authorize executive orders issued by former President Donald Trump to secure the border, rendering the bipartisan border deal moot.

Sinema reiterated that the bill expands detention beds, ends catch-and-release policies, and tightens the asylum system.

"The last thing that is critical is this: During COVID, we had a tool called Title 42 that allowed us to shut down the border and turn people away. The courts withdrew our authority to do that. The border emergency authority creates this statute. We cannot do it administratively. We must change the law to do this," Sinema concluded, echoing Representative Jared Moskowitz (D-FL).