Republicans want to pair border security with aid for Ukraine. Here’s why that makes a deal so tough

WASHINGTON — As Congress returns to session this week, lawmakers will try to reach a deal on sending a new round of wartime aid to Ukraine. But to succeed, they will have to reach agreement on an issue that has confused them for decades.

Republicans in both chambers of Congress have made clear that they will not support additional aid to Ukraine unless it is accompanied by border security measures to help manage the flow of migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border. Their demand has injected one of the most controversial issues in American politics into an already difficult foreign policy debate.

Time is short for a deal.

A small, bipartisan group in the Senate is taking the lead, working to find a narrow compromise that could overcome a likely filibuster by winning 60 votes. But even if they can reach a modest deal, there is no guarantee it will pass the House of Representatives, where Republicans are pushing for sweeping changes to U.S. border and immigration policies.

Republicans hope Democrats will feel political pressure to accept some of their border proposals after the number of illegal border crossings exceeded a daily average of more than 8,000 earlier this fall. President Joe Biden, who is running for re-election next year, has even come under pressure from fellow Democrats over the migrant flow.

Whatever happens, finding a compromise will be extremely difficult. As they left for the Thanksgiving holiday, Senate negotiators said they were still far apart.

A look at some of the issues under discussion and why they have proven so difficult to resolve:

Changing the asylum system for immigrants is a top priority for Republicans. They want to make it harder for asylum seekers to prove in initial interviews that they have a credible fear of political, religious or racial persecution in their home country before seeking asylum in the United States.

Republicans in the House of Representatives have passed legislation that would detain families at the border, require migrants to submit asylum claims at an official port of entry and either detain them or require them to remain outside the U.S. while their cases is being treated.

U.S. and international law give migrants the right to seek safety from persecution, but the number of people seeking asylum in the U.S. has reached historic highs. Critics say many people are abusing the system to live and work in the US while they wait for their asylum claims to be processed by the courts.

Sen. Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona, an independent who is part of the Senate negotiations, said in a radio interview in Arizona that one of the lawmakers’ goals is to ensure that “those seeking asylum here have an effective claim to have asylum.”

A compromise is far from certain. Many Democrats are wary of making it harder to escape prosecution, and the details of any policy change are controversial.

Hardline conservatives in the House of Representatives, already unlikely to support further aid to Ukraine, have also signaled they will not accept policy changes that differ widely from a bill passed in May that would have reshaped the U.S. immigration system. Their position means that at least some support from Democrats in the House of Representatives will be needed to reach an agreement – ​​no easy task.

Some progressives have already said they will oppose any Republican-led change in immigration policy.

“The cruel, inhumane and unworkable solutions offered by Republicans will only create more disorder and confusion at the border,” said Democratic Rep. Pramila Jayapal of Washington, chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus.

Lawmakers may find it easier to reach consensus on other areas of border policy, especially when it comes to border staffing and enforcement.

Negotiators have looked at steps that can be taken to strengthen existing infrastructure at the border, including hiring and increasing pay for Border Patrol agents and improving technology. One proposal from a bipartisan group of senators would call for hiring more Border Patrol agents, raising their pay and guaranteeing they get overtime.

Biden has shown willingness to accept tougher enforcement measures, recently resuming the deportation of migrants to Venezuela and abandoning federal laws to allow construction of a border wall that began under then-President Donald Trump. The White House also wants to install new imaging technology at ports of entry, allowing authorities to quickly scan vehicles for illegal imports, including fentanyl.

Republicans say that’s not enough. They want more robust improvements, including more extensive border wall construction.

Biden’s emergency request to Congress included aid to Ukraine, Israel and other U.S. allies, along with $14 billion to strengthen the immigration system and border security. The money would go toward hiring more Border Patrol agents, immigration judges and asylum officers. It is part of Biden’s strategy to simultaneously turn away from Trump’s hardline policies but also adapt to the reality of US-Mexico border crossings.

Still, polls show widespread frustration over Biden’s handling of immigration and the border, creating political vulnerability as he seeks reelection. Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas told the Senate Appropriations Committee this month that the administration has been dealing with a “global phenomenon” of displaced people migrating in numbers not seen since World War II.

“It is unanimous that our broken immigration system is in desperate need of reform,” Mayorkas said.

Democrats have other immigration priorities, such as expanding legal immigration routes or work permits for migrants already in the US. Democrats have also warned of the danger of delaying aid to Ukraine as the country enters another winter of war against Russia.

Senator Dick Durbin of Illinois, the second-ranking Democrat in the Senate, said it is a mistake to create a situation where “we have to pass significant immigration reform in the coming weeks or we won’t send money to the people in Ukraine to help. or other causes important to our national security.”

Republicans have thus far remained adamant about the need to tackle Ukraine and the border at the same time.

It seems unlikely that lawmakers will tackle one of the country’s long-standing immigration problems: granting some form of permanent legal status to thousands of immigrants brought to the U.S. illegally as children. Republicans have made it clear that this will not be addressed in this package, that they want to focus more specifically on border security measures.

As Congress struggled to pass comprehensive immigration reform, President Barack Obama launched the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program in 2012 to protect these immigrants from deportation and allow them to work in the country legally. But it has been embroiled in the courts ever since, and Trump, the frontrunner for the Republican presidential nomination in 2024, tried to put an end to it while he was in the White House.

Democratic Sen. Chris Murphy of Connecticut, one of the Senate negotiators, declined to say early last week whether his party had proposed DACA provisions as part of the talks. But he said any deal “must respect both Republican and Democratic priorities.”

“The more Republicans want, the more Democrats will want,” Murphy said.

Republicans argue that support for Ukraine could be a hard sell for some of their voters, and that border policy is the compromise.

Senator Tom Cotton of Arkansas, a Republican who has been involved in the talks, said before the Thanksgiving holiday that negotiations were not “very close because Democrats have not yet accepted that the negotiations are not border security for the priorities of the Democratic immigration. border security for aid to Ukraine.”

So far, leaders from both parties have encouraged the talks. But as senators return to their work and face pressure to approve funding by the end of the year, some are warning that a limited deal is likely the best they can do.

“I don’t think it’s realistic to even remotely solve the whole problem in the next week or two,” Murphy said.