Senate Democrats take bold step to get border deal done
WASHINGTON >> As senators gathered on the floor for a typical Monday night vote at the end of October, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky. approached Sen. Chuck Schumer, the Senate majority leader, with some unsettling news: Border security was going to have to be part of any package to free up endangered assistance for Ukraine.
To Schumer of New York, the majority leader, the ultimatum revived unpleasant memories of his participation in difficult immigration negotiations in 2013 that yielded a compromise, only to collapse despite strong bipartisan support in the Senate. But saying no could doom the Ukraine aid and leave Democrats holding the bag. He and his staff grappled with the problem for a week, then gathered for a conference call Sunday, Nov. 5. A bold new approach took hold.
“We had an epiphany — sort of lightning strikes,” Schumer recalled in an interview. “Do border. If we did it right and were tough about it, it's a win for us. And it helps us with Ukraine because so many of our people care about Ukraine, they will vote for a good border bill.”
The abrupt change in conventional Democratic thinking had profound significance for the ensuing four months on Capitol Hill. It touched off a circuitous series of events — including some near-death experiences — that paved the way for the Senate's approval early Tuesday of $95 billion in aid to Ukraine, Israel and U.S. allies in the Indo-Pacific. The final package notably did not contain new border security provisions, after Senate conservatives opted to kill that element of the legislation despite
“It's a win if Republicans abandon us at the last minute, because if Democrats could put together a tough, bipartisan bill on border, it would not take border away as an issue for the Republicans, but it would give us a 50-50 chance to combat it.” — Sen. Chuck Schumer, Senate majority leader
their initial insistence that it be included.
The tanking of the immigration proposal, hammered out over weeks of talks between the designees of Schumer and McConnell, ultimately cleared the way for passage of the foreign aid bill. Enough Republicans — 22 in the end — were unwilling to desert Ukraine, and many of them believed that Schumer and his fellow Democrats had made a good-faith effort to strike a border security deal that was sabotaged by members of their own party.
The possibility that Republicans would bolt from their own deal had occurred to Schumer from the start, given his previous experience.
“We knew it way back then,” he said.
But Schumer saw a political upside should that occur: Democrats would be able to say they tried and point to the Republican opposition for failing to halt a surge of migrants illegally crossing the U.S. border with Mexico.
“It's a win if Republicans abandon us at the last minute,” Schumer said in an interview, explaining his calculation, “because if Democrats could put together a tough, bipartisan bill on border, it would not take border away as an issue for the Republicans, but it would give us a 50-50 chance to combat it.”
The strategy seemed to pay off almost immediately with the victory of Tom Suozzi, a Democrat, in the special House election in New York on Tuesday. He was able to deflect his Republican opponent's attacks against him on immigration by accusing her and her party of playing politics with the border in rejecting the Senate deal.
“Unfortunately, too many Republicans succumbed to the ministrations of Donald Trump,” Schumer said after the Senate vote.
The senator acknowledged that the border talks were touch and go throughout. He regularly urged Sen. Christopher Murphy, DConn., who was handling the talks for his party, to stick with it and be willing to give significant ground, he said. Schumer suggested to Biden administration officials that they insert Alejandro Mayorkas, the homeland security secretary, directly into the Senate talks, which they did.
Members of both parties credited Schumer for deftly playing a hand that insulated Democrats from a backlash to the collapse, provided a political defense on border policy and still allowed him and a bipartisan coalition of senators to salvage the Ukraine aid.
“He saw an opening, and he seized it,” said Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn. “His approach has kept this effort bipartisan despite the rancor and resistance.”