Jim Jordan's 'hallucinatory' shutdown threat would cost billions and is illegal: column

As a price of averting a government shutdown, Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) is making a demand of President Joe Biden and Democrats in Congress that is both expensive and legally unworkable, wrote Greg Sargent for The Washington Post on Tuesday.

"Jordan ... is threatening to derail the next round of talks about keeping the government open — unless Democrats agree to restrictions on asylum-seeking that are not just wildly extreme, but would be entirely unworkable even if Democrats were inclined to accept them," wrote Sargent.

Specifically, Jordan has demanded “No money can be used to process or release into the country any new migrants,” and that this is "non-negotiable."

This comes as Jordan vies to be elected Speaker of the House, following the historic ouster of Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) from that role last week.

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The problem, Sargent noted, is that this is not practical or legal.

"If the administration were barred from using funds for 'processing' any migrants, it would seemingly mean officials could not process any migrants’ requests for asylum. The administration must process these requests, because the law requires it: Migrants who ask for asylum after being apprehended on U.S. soil, even ones who entered illegally between ports of entry, must get an official interview."

It's unclear how this could work if there is no money for the officials doing it. Former Homeland Security lawyer Jawetz has clarified that Jordan's demand “would be both illegal and a practical impossibility.”

Jordan is also demanding that all funding cease for the release of migrants pending their hearing, which, Sargent wrote, is "simply absurd," and also illegal because federal courts have blocked prolonged detention of migrant children; effectively it would be a legal mandate to start separating migrant families again, something even the Trump administration was forced to end under furious controversy.

"As Jordan’s latest threat demonstrates, when it comes to policy, Republicans often treat the border as a kind of fantasy zone — and there is no discernible limit on their prescriptions, no matter how hallucinatory or barbaric," concluded Sargent.