Sinema on Johnson supporting border deal: 'Everyone has an opportunity to be persuaded'

Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (I-Ariz.) suggested Sunday that Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) could be persuaded to back a potential Senate bipartisan deal on the border.

Sinema, one of the top lawmakers involved in border negotiations, said Sunday on CBS’s “Face the Nation” that while she is not sure what Johnson will do with potential legislation on the border after it goes through the Senate, he and others may be persuaded to get behind it after they read through the proposal.

She said Johnson and members in the House “will have had ample opportunity” to understand and ask questions about the content of any agreement, which has not been reached in the Senate yet. Johnson said last month that any potential deal would be “dead on arrival” in the House.

“You know, I think everyone has an opportunity to be persuaded,” she said when asked if Johnson could be persuaded. “And by persuaded, Margaret, I simply mean, read the legislation, understand how it works. These are powerful new tools that allow any administration, this one and future administrations, to actually gain control of the border by changing the asylum system so that cartels can no longer exploit it.”

“And by giving a powerful new tool to the government that requires them to shut down the border during times of high traffic, when too many people are asking to come into the country to seek asylum,” she continued.

Johnson said on NBC’s “Meet the Press” on Sunday that he has not been briefed on the Senate border talks.

Sinema also described the details of the negotiations on “Face the Nation,” saying that the potential deal will end the practice of capture and release. She also said a proposed deal would require the U.S. to shut down the border if it reaches 5,000 migrant encounters a day, a proposal other lawmakers have also suggested.

“We’re now mandating that the government actually shut down the border if those numbers get to 5,000 a day. But we’re permitting the government to actually shut down the border when it only gets to 4,000 approaches a day. And the reason we’re doing that is because we want to be able to shut down the system when it gets overloaded,” she said.