Will Democrats Accept Border Concessions to Get Ukraine Aid?
For years, the potential bargain the left has been willing to accept is one in which Republicans get tougher border policies and Democrats get progressive immigration measures — a path to citizenship for Dreamers, at the very least.
But the current negotiations have changed the equation: Republicans get border security and Democrats get aid to Ukraine. Early in the talks, we’re told, Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) tried to add in citizenship for Dreamers, and Republicans shot it down.
For immigration reform advocates, it means their longtime priorities have been traded away and replaced with Biden’s foreign aid priorities. And they are starting to step up pressure on Senate Democrats and the White House.
The “border security” concessions Senate Republicans are pressing for would be deeply troublesome for many Democrats even if they were linked to counter-concessions on immigration reform, Playbook notes:he negotiations are now centered around three big issues:
Asylum standards: When migrants apply for asylum, they are screened to determine whether they have “credible fear” they will be persecuted or tortured if they’re returned home. Republicans want a higher standard, which would result in more migrants being removed. Safe third countries: There are discussions about expanding the number of countries where asylum seekers would be required to seek protection first if they pass through on the way to the U.S. border. Canada, for instance, is designated as a “safe third country,” while Mexico isn’t. Parole authority: Presidents have the authority to temporarily admit people to the U.S. for humanitarian or other reasons. For instance, Biden has used these “parole” powers to allow in thousands of people from Afghanistan, Ukraine, Venezuela, Cuba and elsewhere; Republicans want to vastly curtail this authority.
In terms of the politics of these three issues, Democrats seem resigned to accepting a revised asylum threshold, deeply hostile to meddling with parole authority and somewhere in the middle on safe third countries.
Even if Democrats can accept some combination of Senate Republican demands, House Republicans and their Senate allies are taking a much tougher line with some saying nothing short of the harsh provisions in the House-passed Secure the Border Act would suffice to get their votes for a big package that includes aid to Ukraine and Israel. This House legislation would basically bring back and intensify the Trump administration’s border and immigration policies, as the Texas Tribune explained when it was passed by the House last spring on a party-line vote:The Secure the Border Act would resume construction of the border wall begun under President Donald Trump, limit asylum eligibility to ports of entry, require migrants to wait out asylum claims in Mexico, provide grants for law enforcement engaged in border security and add stiffer penalties for overstaying visas. It also would extend expulsion authority.
For MAGA Republicans in both chambers, of course, Ukraine aid is somewhere between a very low priority and something they actively oppose, and they figure aid to Israel will eventually happen in any event thanks to strong bipartisan support. So they have little interest in a deal involving concessions from their hard-line stance. This puts progressive Democrats in both chambers in the unenviable position of having little or no power to push back against quasi-nativist demands and variable interest in carrying the president’s water on Ukraine. The packaging of these two disparate legislative topics is, after all, occurring mostly because Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell is insisting on it. The deal, if it happens, will be developed by a bipartisan group of six senators who have been meeting for weeks: Democrats Michael Bennet, Chris Murphy, and Kyrsten Sinema and Republicans Lindsey Graham, James Lankford, and Thom Tillis. Immigration-reform advocates deride this negotiating team as “the Gang of White” and fear that battleground-state Democrats aware of growing anti-migrant sentiment and a Biden administration focused on Ukraine will encourage them to cave. It’s been just over a decade since an earlier Senate “gang” crafted a comprehensive immigration-reform bill that included a path to citizenship for millions of undocumented people along with border-security measures that now seem mild. That bill passed the Senate and died in the House at the hand of conservative hard-liners. That was before Donald Trump galvanized the nativist wing of the GOP and pushed the whole debate to the right. Now Democrats must decide if immigration policy will essentially be dictated by those who would just as soon close the borders for good. Sign Up for the Intelligencer Newsletter Daily news about the politics, business, and technology shaping our world.This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.
