Senate Republicans say they’ll refuse to move forward on an Israel-Ukraine funding package unless it also strengthens security on the US southern border. The refusal, combined with House Republicans’ demands for border and immigration reform, means a serious compromise will be needed to get the three measures passed together.
“I’m not going to vote for a package that doesn’t address the out-of-control nature of our border,” Senator Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., told reporters.
Even Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said border security must be part of the package if it’s going to pass.
President Biden sent Congress a $106 billion funding request that includes $61.4 billion for Ukraine, $14.3 billion for Israel and $13.6 billion for border security.
Senate Republicans released a border proposal that’s largely based on the House Republican border and immigration bill. Republicans said the proposal had to be included if they’re going to support the president’s package.
The one-page proposal:
- Creates a safe third country requirement for asylum seekers, meaning that if they pass through another safe country before coming to America without applying there first, they are ineligible for asylum.
- Raises the asylum standard for “credible fear of persecution” from “significant possibility” to “more likely than not”.
- Requires DHS to keep families together in detention while charges for illegal border crossing are pending. This measure is intended to deter people from bringing children with them in order to be released from detention more quickly.
- “This is about controlling the border before we get attacked,” Graham said. “So they are letting this get out of hand. There’s not going to be a DACA, anything like that, because that’s going to incentivize more people to come.
Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., opposed the Republican proposal and said they needed to meet Democrats halfway.
“They know full well that what they came up with is a non-starter,” Schumer said. “Instead of putting together a common-sense border policy that can pass in divided government, Senate Republicans have basically copied and pasted large chunks of the House’s radical HR-2 bill.”
Republicans claim that the president’s request is designed to speed up the processing of immigrants who are already here, rather than reduce the number of immigrants crossing.
The president wants to use the money for
- An additional 1,300 border patrol agents.
- 375 immigration judge teams.
- 1,600 asylum officers to speed up the processing of asylum claims.
- 1,000 Customs and Border Protection officers to focus on the fight against fentanyl.
