How the White House got involved in the border talks on Capitol Hill — with Ukraine aid at stake

WASHINGTON — WASHINGTON (AP) — White House Chief of Staff Jeff Zients recently heard from a powerful Democratic senator that steep migration levels at the U.S.-Mexico border had, in a word, become unsustainable.

Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois, the No. 2 Democrat, had signed a statement denouncing “reports of harmful changes to our asylum system” proposed as part of a border deal on Capitol Hill. Yet Durbin, a veteran of countless immigration battles, had also received briefings from border officials and seen firsthand how the rising number of asylum seekers had overwhelmed resources in his Midwestern state.

So when Zients called Durbin one weekend this month for a temperature check about the ongoing border talks, the senator was candid.

“I told him I thought the current situation was untenable and that Democrats needed to be part of the solution,” Durbin said. President Joe Biden's top aide indicated the White House felt the same way, stressing to Durbin that “we need to work with Republicans and see if there's a middle ground,” according to the senator's retelling.

That call between Zients and Durbin is just one of several calls the White House chief of staff has made to key lawmakers in recent days, underscoring how top Biden administration officials have significantly stepped up their involvement on Capitol Hill as the fate of Biden's administration. The request for emergency spending for Ukraine remains in jeopardy.

Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, along with senior White House and Department of Homeland Security officials, spent hours behind closed doors negotiating the intricacies of immigration policy alongside senators trying to reach a border deal. Zients himself dropped by one of those meetings at the Capitol last week and reiterated Biden negotiators' plea to find a solution.

And the White House chief of staff has spoken regularly with Senator James Lankford of Oklahoma, the Republican Party's chief negotiator. It's a level of involvement that has heartened Republicans, who had been pushing for Biden to get more involved.

Republicans, who control the House and can block legislation in the Senate, say a deal is not possible without significant support from the White House. Having Biden's senior aides actively participate in the talks sends a message — especially to wary Democratic lawmakers — that the president is willing to make a border deal that could make some in his own party uncomfortable.

And any deal reached at the border could also help address a major political liability for Biden as he gears up for his reelection, especially if the White House's greater involvement helps the public see the president as someone who is looking for a solution for the increasing border numbers.

“I think one important change is that we now have all the entities at the table,” said Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, I-Ariz., one of the lawmakers who has been negotiating a border deal for weeks. “The White House is involved in these negotiations as a full partner, and that is important. It shows a level of seriousness and intent to resolve this crisis.”

Another major reason the White House and senior administration officials have become so directly involved is the sheer complexity of immigration law and the central role of the Department of Homeland Security in implementing any restrictions Congress may enact.

Yet this was not the White House strategy from the start.

Once it became clear that Republicans in Congress would demand policy extractions in exchange for releasing billions in additional aid for Ukraine, the White House deliberately kept its distance from the negotiations – following its previous strategy of letting lawmakers legislate, which had led to several of Biden's priorities becoming increasingly important. law. Although administration officials were aware of what was being discussed, they deferred to the senators leading the talks — Lankford, Sinema and Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn.

That dynamic changed this month. Mayorkas has been consistently present at the negotiations, along with Shuwanza Goff, White House legislative affairs director, and Natalie Quillian, a White House deputy chief of staff who has taken on immigration. They, along with senators and a group of other senior aides, negotiated for hours each day and continued to do so on Capitol Hill throughout the weekend.

Outside the negotiating room, Zients has spoken regularly with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and the other negotiators. When the chief of staff spoke to Lankford, he urged him and other Republicans to stick to border negotiations because aid to Ukraine is so vital, an administration official said.

“We can't make any deal until the White House is actually involved,” said Lankford, who emphasized that having Biden's aides in the room has been helpful. “There are a lot of Democrats in the Senate asking, 'What does the White House think about this?' That's reasonable for them to ask that. I can't answer until they're actually there.'

The stakes of the negotiations — which are taking place in a room on the second floor of the Capitol, near Schumer's offices — are enormous for the White House and for Biden's foreign policy legacy. Intertwined with the border talks are additional funds not only for Ukraine but also for Israel, which has been embroiled in a violent battle in Gaza since an attack by Hamas militants on October 7 killed more than 1,200 Israelis.

Biden and White House aides have repeatedly warned, in dire terms, of the consequences if Ukraine's funding dries up. The president said earlier this month that “any disruption to our ability to supply Ukraine clearly strengthens Putin's position,” and administration officials have stressed that money to help Kiev will run out by the end of the year.

Still other Democrats and immigrant rights advocates worry that Biden's desperation for help to Ukraine would lead the White House to adopt a harsh policy that limits asylum options it would not otherwise support. And it's up to senior White House aides to deal with the incoming anger from dismayed lawmakers. Zients and Mayorkas spoke Saturday with members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, with several Democrats expressing concerns about the ongoing border talks.

“I think there's sometimes a perception that because a lot of senators become president, you can just let the White House and the Senate come up with a deal and block the House somehow,” said Rep. Ro Khanna, D -California. leading progressive, on “Fox News Sunday.” 'But the House is still the house of the people, and we will have our say. We need to get involved.”

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Associated Press writer Stephen Groves contributed to this report.