Border Bill That DHS Chief Has Called 'Unworkable' Faces a Fight on Capitol Hill

House Republicans have weathered three tough weeks to start the 114th Congress, and this week won't be any easier, as GOP leaders try to tamp down conservative opposition to a border security bill meant to be the core of the party's immigration reform plan.

Republican leaders are billing the legislation—which Homeland Security Committee Chairman Mike McCaul called the "toughest border security bill ever—as the gateway to their long-promised, step-by-step immigration rewrite. But Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson called it "extreme to the point of being unworkable," meaning Democratic support will be hard to come by, and that may confront Republicans with a dilemma in which they don't have enough votes in their own party to pass it.

The controversial immigration bill comes just days after GOP leaders pulled an antiabortion bill from the House floor amid complaints from women and moderates. The party has also had to endure a an earlier immigration vote that saw more than two dozen GOP defections, and a divisive reelection vote for Speaker John Boehner.

Passing the McCaul bill through a House Republican Conference that has long espoused a secure-the-border-first approach to immigration reform will not be intuitively easy, either. Sen. Jeff Sessions, a leading voice in the far right on immigration issues, has been rallying opposition, and that may translate into problems with House conservatives.

"No enforcement plan can be successful that does not block the president from continuing to release illegal immigrants into the United States and provide them with immigration benefits," Sessions said in a statement. "A 'border security' plan that does not include these elements may end up as nothing more than a slush fund used by the administration to resettle illegal immigrants in the U.S. interior."

In response to those concerns, McCaul and Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte issued a rare joint statement Thursday noting that interior issues, such as electronic verification of employment eligibility, are under Judiciary's jurisdiction and will be dealt with in turn.

"We join our colleagues to secure our borders and ensure our immigration laws are not unilaterally ignored by President Obama and future presidents," they said. "We will continue working on these issues, and the Judiciary Committee will work on legislation to deliver results on interior enforcement."

Such objections have Republicans and Democrats alike privately musing that this is the exact reason leaders had sought to rework the immigration system in a comprehensive manner. But the problems for leaders do not end there.

Some conservatives have openly questioned whether the bill is merely the first step toward uncertain and unpalatable immigration changes. There is a also growing sentiment on the right that the border bill is a ruse meant to smooth passage of a DHS funding bill that has yet to see Senate action. The worry is that GOP leaders will tack it on to the funding bill instead of measures targeting Obama's relaxed immigration-enforcement policies, which are not able to pass the Senate—although leadership sources emphatically deny that is the plan. Also troublingly, support for the border-security bill has been waning among the same single-issue groups whose approval leaders touted as reason to support the DHS funding bill in the first place.

The border bill would require DHS to have the southwest border under "operational control" in five years. If the department fails at that objective, the legislation dictates that political appointees at the agency cannot travel in government vehicles, be reimbursed for nonessential travel, or receive pay increases or bonuses.

For their part, Senate GOP leaders are endorsing the House's border legislation. Sens. John Cornyn of Texas, the chamber's No. 2 Republican, has introduced a border-security bill identical to the House measure with Jeff Flake of Arizona and Ron Johnson of Wisconsin. Flake has supported broader immigration legislation in the past, including a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants. This year, however, he has said repeatedly that President Obama opened the door for a piece-by-piece approach to immigration when he created an executive-branch program to defer deportations. The border-security bill is a good first step, he says.

In the Senate, leaders in both parties are well aware that the February deadline is approaching for funding DHS, but it's anyone's guess how they will handle it. Minority Leader Harry Reid has asked for "clean" bill that would continue funding for the agency through September without additional provisions. But first, Senate Republicans want to try to pass the House bill, which would stop Obama's deferred-deportation programs for unauthorized immigrants. That effort is almost certain to fail, and it will take up valuable floor time. It is unclear whether the border-security bill will also be part of that debate.

Competing priorities have Republican leaders in a quandary about what will happen once the current debate authorizing the Keystone XL pipeline is over. In theory, the Senate's next votes will be on putting additional sanctions on Iran if the ongoing nuclear-disarmament talks stall. Banking Committee Chairman Richard Shelby says he expects his panel to vote on an Iran sanctions bill this week after a hearing on the issue slated for Tuesday, gift-wrapping the bill for the floor. Given the first three weeks of chaotic debate on the Senate's top priority, authorizing the Keystone XL pipeline, it's hard to imagine an Iran sanctions debate being much shorter. That would leave the Senate very little time to finish a DHS bill.

Senators are struggling with Majority Leader Mitch McConnell's open-amendment process, which has had a few hiccups since Congress convened. The Senate has voted on dozens of amendments, including several addressing a high-priority Democratic issue of climate change. But Democratic leaders say they have a lot more on tap. Left unfettered, the Keystone debate could go on for the rest of the year. Realizing this, McConnell moved to cut off debate minutes before midnight last on Thursday, with Democrats howling in protest, putting the bill on a path to final passage this week.

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