A deal to provide further US aid to Ukraine by the end of the year looks increasingly out of reach for President Joe Biden. The deadlock deepened in Congress despite dire warnings from the White House about the consequences of inaction as Republicans insisted on pairing the aid with changes to America’s immigration and border policies.
After the Democratic president said last week he was willing to “make significant compromises on the border,” Republicans quickly revived demands they had earlier set aside, hardening their positions and trying to shift the negotiations to the right, according to a person familiar with the unspoken talks. the power to discuss it publicly and to speak on condition of anonymity.
The latest proposal, from the GOP’s chief negotiator, Sen. James Lankford, R-Okla., came during a meeting with a core group of senators before they left Washington on Thursday evening. It could force the White House to consider ideas that many Democrats would seriously oppose, raising new hurdles in difficult negotiations.
The White House said it would be a disaster if Ukraine did not receive financial support. AP President Biden has strongly supported Ukraine and its president, Volodymyr Zelensky. AP
Biden faces the prospect of his foreign policy foundation – pushing Russian President Vladimir Putin out of Ukraine’s bypass – collapsing as US support for war funding wanes, particularly among Republicans. The White House said failure to approve more aid by the end of the year could have catastrophic consequences for Ukraine and its ability to fight.
To maintain US support, the Biden administration has quietly been involved in Senate discussions on border policy in recent weeks, providing assistance to a small group of senators trying to reach a deal and deliver acceptable policy changes.
The president is trying to meet GOP demands to reduce the historic number of immigrants arriving at the US-Mexico border while allaying Democratic concerns that legal immigration will be curbed by drastic measures.
As talks stalled to resume last week, Democrats warned Republicans that time for a deal was running short. Congress is scheduled to leave Washington in mid-December for a recess.
GOP concerns about historic numbers of immigrants coming to the US draw attention away from the Ukraine war. AP
“Republicans need to show they’re serious about reaching a compromise, not just throwing on the floor basically Donald Trump’s border policy,” Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, DN.Y., said Thursday before Republicans made their counteroffer.
But the new Republican proposal delves into policy changes that have caused Democrats to back out of negotiations, according to people familiar with the discussions. The GOP offer calls for ending humanitarian parole programs currently available to existing classes of immigrants — Ukrainians, Afghans, Cubans, Venezuelans, Nicaraguans and Haitians. The idea has been destroyed before.
In addition, the group of migrants will not be allowed to be released again if their period of stay ends before their case is adjudicated in immigration proceedings.
GOP senators are proposing a monitoring system like ankle bracelets for people, including children, who are detained at the border and are awaiting parole. Republicans want to bar people from applying for asylum if they’ve transited through another country where they could get asylum instead. GOP lawmakers also want to revive executive powers that allow a president to shut down participation for broad reasons.
Further, after immigration encounters at the border recently reached historic numbers, the GOP proposal would set new guidelines that would require the border to essentially be closed if illegal crossings reach a certain limit.
Lankford declined to discuss specifics after Thursday’s meeting, but said he was trying to “negotiate in good faith.” He said the historic number of migrants at the border should not be ignored. The sheer number of people arriving at the border has overwhelmed the asylum system, he said, making it impossible for authorities to adequately screen the people they let in.
“Do you want large numbers of undocumented individuals and unscreened individuals without work permits, without access to the rest of the economy?” Lankford said.
The Democratic chief negotiator, Connecticut Sen. Chris Murphy, did not immediately respond to the GOP proposal.
The Democratic chief negotiator, Senator Chris Murphy, had no immediate response to the Republican demands. AP
Senators had made some progress in talks before Thursday, finding general agreement to raise the initial standards for immigrants to enter the asylum system – part of the so-called credible fear system. The administration has signaled that it agrees to the change and that it could agree to expand expedited removal to deport immigrants before they have a hearing with an immigration judge, according to two people briefed on the private negotiations who spoke on condition of anonymity.
Immigration advocates and progressives in Congress have been concerned with the direction of the negotiations, particularly because they did not feature changes aimed at expanding legal immigration.
Robyn Barnard, director of refugee advocacy with Human Rights First, called the situation during the negotiations a “moment of absolute crisis.” He warned that expanding fast-track deportation powers could lead to a mass roundup of immigrants across the country and compared it to the situation under the Trump administration. “Communities across the country will live in fear,” he said.
As the election approaches, Republicans are putting pressure on President Biden to take a more aggressive stance on immigration. Xinhua News Agency via Getty Ima
But the Republican senator, sensing that Biden, who is campaigning for a second term, wants to deal with the historic number of people coming to the border, has taken an aggressive stance and tried to draw the president directly into the negotiations.
Start your day with everything you need to know
Morning Report delivers the latest news, videos, photos and more.
“The White House needs to get involved especially if Senate Democrats don’t want to do what we’re proposing to do,” Sen. John Thune, RS.D., said at a news conference Thursday.
The White House has so far refused to take a leading role in the negotiations. “Democrats have said that they want to compromise. Have that conversation,” said White House press secretary Karine-Jean Pierre.
After every GOP senator last week voted not to proceed with legislation that would have provided tens of billions of dollars in military and economic aid for Ukraine, many in the chamber were left in a sour mood. Even those hoping for a deal admit it will be difficult to push the package through the Senate at this late stage.
Even if senators reach a deal, the hurdle to passage in the House is huge. Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., has signaled that he will fight for comprehensive changes to immigration policy that go beyond what is being discussed in the Senate. Also, broad support from House Democrats is far from assured, as progressive and Hispanic lawmakers have raised concerns about restricting access to asylum.
“Trading Ukrainian lives for the lives of asylum seekers is morally bankrupt and irresponsible,” Rep. Delia Ramirez, D-Ill., posted on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, as part of a campaign coordinated by Hispanic Democrats.
The thorny issue led Lankford, who was one of the senators optimistic that a deal could be reached this year, to acknowledge the difficulty of finding agreement in the coming days.
“There’s a lot of politics tied into this,” he said as he left the Capitol for a week. “Thirty years it hasn’t been solved because it’s so complicated.”
Categories: Trending
Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
