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Sinema vows not to let Congress forget border as bipartisan package faces certain defeat

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell concedes 'it will not become law.' Arizona senator says colleagues decided 'they don't actually want to secure the border'

PHOENIX — The border security bill championed by Arizona Senator Kyrsten Sinema is all but dead.

"I saw the news at the same time most folks in our country did," Sinema said in an interview Tuesday.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell conceded defeat after a lunch Tuesday with Senate Republicans.

VERSIÓN EN ESPAÑOL: Sinema promete no dejar que el Congreso se olvide de la frontera mientras que paquete bipartidista enfrenta cierta oposición

"We had a very robust discussion about whether or not this product could ever become law," McConnell told reporters. "It's been made pretty clear to us by (House Speaker Mike Johnson) that it will not become law."

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer did not say whether he'd still follow through on his plan to bring the bill up for a vote Wednesday.

Sinema anticipates that he will.

"My colleagues four months ago, on the Republican side in the Senate, said that they were unwilling to move forward with a national security package to fight Putin, or to support Israel unless we also included a tough border security package. Now, you'll recall at the time I agreed," Sinema said.

"Now it does seem that some of my colleagues have changed their mind, and as of today decided that they don't actually want to secure the border."

Sinema, who switched her voter registration in 2022 from Democrat to Independent, had held up the border security bill as an example of what could get done if partisanship was set aside. 

RELATED: Senators release a border and Ukraine deal but the House speaker declares it 'dead on arrival'

It was to have been another proof of concept after her role as lead negotiator on the $1 trillion bipartisan infrastructure law in 2021.

The bill, with harsh provisions once considered unacceptable to Democrats, was backed by President Joe Biden.

Now Sinema's months of bipartisan negotiations with Republican Sen. James Lankford and Democratic Sen. Chris Murphy have hit a dead end. The same fate befell immigration and border legislation promoted over the last 20 years by two other Arizonans— Republicans John McCain and Jeff Flake.

Sinema said she won't let Congress forget.

"Each day as the Senate and the House choose not to take action, I'll remind them that it is a day when we could have been using these new powers to better control our border and ensure national security for our country," Sinema said.

Was the result of the border security bill preordained when Donald Trump commanded Republicans to reject the deal?

"People get to choose," Sinema said. "Do you want to secure the border or do you want to retain it as a political talking point heading into the election?"

Arizona Republican Congressmen Andy Biggs of Gilbert, Paul Gosar of Bullhead City and Juan Ciscomani of Tucson have all spurned the deal. So did Democrat Raul Grijalva of Tucson.

Back home, Republican elected officials and business groups supported the border fixes. 

Mayor Doug Nicholls of Yuma and Yuma County Supervisor Jonathan Lines, a former Arizona Republican Party chair, both supported the bipartisan package. 

Nicholls and Lines live in a border sector that was overwhelmed by a migrant surge two years ago. 

"They are begging for us to fix the border," Sinema said. 

"For us in Arizona, this is not about partisanship... This, for us, is an unmitigated crisis. And it will be tomorrow, and the next day and the next day."

The legislation was the toughest border security package in decades. 

RELATED: Senate border bill would upend US asylum with emergency limits and fast-track reviews

The pro-Trump Border Patrol Union endorsed it. 

So did the conservative Wall Street Journal's editorial page.

Under the bill's border expulsion provisions, for example, the government could shut down the border once apprehensions reach 5,000 a day. 

The high number of current encounters at the border would have triggered the law, Sinema said.

"Every single day this year, in 2024, would have triggered my law," she said.

There's nothing in the bill on a path to citizenship or legal status for the Dreamers, preoccupations of previous immigration legislation. 

Sinema introduced a bill last June to protect Dreamers but it wasn't part of the bipartisan deal. 

Sinema has declined to say whether she'll run for a second term in the fall.

She's running out of time to decide.

Sinema has until April 8 - two months away - to file at least 42,303 petition signatures to appear on the November ballot. 

Her campaign still hasn't filed the notice that is required when she starts to gather signatures.

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