The White House has signaled that it is open to several Republican proposals, according to Biden administration officials, lawmakers in both parties and people familiar with the matter.
According to people involved in the talks, Democrats have agreed in principle to raise the standard migrants must meet when they claim they need asylum in the United States because they fear persecution in their home countries.
The White House has also said it would consider a policy similar to the Trump-era emergency rule known as Title 42, which empowered border agents to rapidly expel migrants at the border, according to Senator Thom Tillis, a North Carolina Republican who is involved in the talks.
The White House included some G.O.P. demands in the emergency funding request that Republicans blocked, such as a significant expansion of detention capacity. The bill dedicated more than $4 billion to the Department of Homeland Security to expand holding facilities at the border.
And the White House has considered the idea of reinstating a practice of detaining migrant families that cross the border together — another line item in the G.O.P.’s latest proposal.
The problem is that a lot of people within the Biden administration want these policies because they think migrants and asylum seekers are political losers and they don’t really give a shit about doing right by them. Moderate, anti-immigration Dems want a deal that lets ICE and CBP goons brutalize migrants so they can play up how reasonable and bipartisan they are to selfish dipshits in suburban communities. Republicans meanwhile just want to win everything in 2024, so they’re going to do what they can to keep anything from passing while saying they want to “secure the border” to try to lock up those same selfish suburban dipshit votes.