Senate GOP demands immigration reform be added to Israel, Ukraine aid

Senate Republicans say they will refuse to proceed on an Israel-Ukraine funding package if it doesn’t also strengthen security at the U.S. southern border. The refusal, combined with House Republicans’ border and immigration reform demands, means a serious compromise will be necessary to get those three measures approved together.

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“I’m not going to vote for a package that doesn’t address the out-of-control nature of our border,” Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., told reporters.

Even Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said border security has to 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 protection.

Senate Republicans released a border-related proposal that’s largely based on the House Republican border and immigration bill. Republicans said the proposal needs 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 if they crossed through another safe country before they got to America without applying there first, they are ineligible for asylum. 
• Raises the “credible fear of persecution” asylum standard from “significant possibility” to “more likely than not.” 
• Requires that DHS keep families together in custody while charges for illegally crossing the border are pending. This measure aims to deter people from bringing children along in order to get released from custody faster. 
  

“This is about controlling the border before we get attacked,” Graham said. “So they let this get out of hand. There’s not going to be any DACA, anything like that, because that will incentivize more people to come.

Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., opposed the Republicans’ proposal, and said they need to meet Democrats half way.

“They know full well that what they came up with is a non-starter,” Schumer said. “Instead of putting together commonsense border policies that can pass in divided government, Senate Republicans basically copied and pasted large chunks of the House’s radical HR-2 bill.”

Republicans contend that the president’s request is designed to speed up processing for immigrants who are already here rather than reduce the number of immigrants who are 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 processing of asylum claims.
• 1,000 Customs and Border Protection officers who would focus on countering fentanyl.