WASHINGTON — Facing a barrage of criticism from Republicans, Senate leaders on Monday moved forward with a bipartisan proposal aimed at curbing illegal border crossings, even as it faced a likely defeat in Congress that left leaders without a clear path would have more to approve war aid to Ukraine. .
Senate negotiators on Sunday evening released a $118 billion package of border enforcement policies and funding for Ukraine, Israel and other U.S. allies, hoping the details would convince skeptics. The bill represented a rightward tilt in the Senate negotiations on border measures, but the backlash was intense on the part of conservatives. They called the border policy proposal inadequate, with former President Donald Trump leading the charge.
“This is a gift to the Democrats. And this is kind of moving the worst line in history onto the shoulders of Republicans,” Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, said Monday on “The Dan Bongino Show.” “That’s really what they want. They want this before the presidential election so they can now blame Republicans for the worst border in history.”
Many Senate Republicans — even those who have expressed support for Ukraine aid and the contours of the border policy changes — were unsure Monday whether they would back the package. A private Republican meeting was planned for the evening to discuss this. Still, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer headed toward a key test vote on Wednesday.
“The actions here in the coming days are a turning point in history,” the New York Democrat said in a speech Monday afternoon. “The security of our nation and the world is at stake.”
Schumer worked closely with Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell on the border security package after the Kentucky Republican pushed for the combination as a way to win support for Ukraine aid. The Democratic leader urged his colleagues across the aisle to “turn off the political noise” and vote “yes.”
“For years, our Republican colleagues have demanded that we repair the border. And all the time they said it had to be done through legislation. Only recently have they changed that, when it looks like we could actually produce legislation,” he said.
Both leaders have for months emphasized the urgency of approving tens of billions of dollars for Ukraine’s fight, saying the U.S. ability to support democracies around the world was at stake. But with funding stuck in Congress, the Defense Department has halted shipments of munitions and missiles to Kiev.
McConnell said in a speech that “now is the time for Congress to take action” to address global challenges, even as he denounced Biden’s handling of the border, which has seen historic numbers of migrants crossing illegally.
“The gaping hole in our nation’s sovereign borders under President Biden’s watch will not heal itself,” the Republican leader said.
Biden, during a meeting in Las Vegas with members of a culinary union, noted with reporters that Congress has not approved his funding requests for more Border Patrol agents and immigration judges to handle the number of migrants. “We need help,” he said. “Why won’t they help me?”
“Everything in that bipartisan bill puts me in control,” Biden said, adding that he was disappointed that the border legislation does not address the plight of immigrants who entered the U.S. without permission as children.
House Speaker Mike Johnson has already called the proposal “dead on arrival” if it passes the Senate, but Biden urged the Republican chairman to “pay attention to what the Senate does.”
Johnson, along with the rest of the Republican Party’s top leaders in the House of Representatives, said in a joint statement Monday that they oppose the legislation because “it fails on every policy area needed to secure our borders and, in fact, more would encourage illegal immigration.”
The statement from Johnson and Reps. Steve Scalise, Tom Emmer and Elise Stefanik pointed to a provision in the bill that would grant work permits to migrants eligible to enter the asylum system. They also argued that it would endorse a “catch-and-release” policy by placing migrants entering the asylum system in a monitoring program while they await the final decision on their asylum claim.
Under the proposal, migrants seeking asylum, which provides protection for people facing persecution in their home countries, would face a harder and faster process to have their claims assessed. The standard for initial interviews would be raised, with many receiving these interviews within days of arriving at the border.
Final decisions on their asylum applications would take place within a few months, instead of the often years-long wait that now takes place.
But House Republican leaders said, “Any consideration of this bill in the Senate in its current form is a waste of time.”
Still, the Republican Party’s lead negotiator on the bill, Sen. James Lankford of Oklahoma, implored his colleagues to take another look at the legislation and consider its implications after the presidential election.
“My focus is on what we can do now – regardless of who is president now, four years from now or ten years from now – what can we do to fix problems in the law and ensure that in the long run we have a better border,” he said.
Several Democrats have also spoken out against the bill. Progressive and Latin American lawmakers disagree with the restrictions on asylum seekers. Immigration advocates have also said the bill would cut off important due process rights for people who have fled to the U.S. to escape often harrowing violence.
But Democrats largely favor the package as they look to cities and local governments that have sometimes been overwhelmed by increases in migration in recent years.
Senator Chris Murphy of Connecticut, the lead Democratic negotiator for the bill, said: “I think this country is crying out for the parties to stop fighting over immigration and just get something done that will better control the border and fix our broken immigration system . .”
___
Associated Press writers Darlene Superville in Las Vegas and Kevin Freking in Washington contributed.
