Deal on border policy appears to be shaping up
Keys: asylum, enforcement, and deterrence
WASHINGTON — Amid grueling negotiations, the contours of a bipartisan border security and immigration deal are beginning to take shape, emerging even as Congress leaves town having failed to publicly unveil any details of the package that’s central to unlocking stalled aid for Ukraine.
Talks between the White House and key senators have not veered widely from three main areas of discussion: toughening asylum protocols for migrants arriving at the US-Mexico border; bolstering border enforcement with more personnel and high-tech systems; and deterring migrants from making the journey in the first place.
As the Senate broke for the holidays, due back Jan. 8, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell in a rare joint statement indicated negotiations are progressing. They also met Wednesday to discuss how to advance the border policy alongside President Biden’s $110 billion package of wartime aid for Ukraine, Israel, and other national security priorities.
“We all know there’s a problem at the border,” Schumer said. “Our goal is, as soon as we get back, to get something done.”
McConnell said the negotiations “continue to make headway.”
And as aid for his country hangs in balance, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said at his own press conference in Kyiv he was confident “the US will not let us down.”
Senate negotiators have focused on asylum, by which the US offers protection for people facing persecution in their home countries. The senators say they are trying to ensure that migrants who have a credible claim to asylum can safely apply, but that officials can also quickly turn away those who don't qualify.
Critics often say that too many people who pass their initial asylum interview end up ultimately failing in their efforts to win asylum. But because the immigration courts are so backlogged by the time the final determination happens, many have been in the country for years, making it more difficult and expensive to deport them.
It was the Republicans who demanded negotiations over the border, refusing to provide aid for Ukraine as it battles Russia’s invasion, unless Biden also agreed to changes to cut immigration.
While Biden had initially proposed $14 billion to bolster border security in the national security package, Republicans said money was not enough. They want to enshrine policy changes at the border into law, some echoing Donald Trump, the party’s front-runner for the presidential nomination, who takes a hard line against immigration.
Still, billions of dollars of funding will almost certainly be part of any deal.
Border Patrol officers are overwhelmed processing migrants who turn themselves in seeking asylum. Biden had proposed $3.1 billion for additional border agents as well more asylum officers, immigration judge teams, and processing personnel. Supporters say the money for the asylum system is crucial to addressing the backlog in immigration courts and getting the process moving faster.
Over and over, senators have emerged from hours of closeddoor talks with an exasperated conclusion: Immigration policy is complicated.
“Millions of decisions,” said Senator James Lankford, a Republican of Oklahoma. “Underneath every big idea is 100 smaller decisions that all have to be made, and every one is complicated.”
Senator Chris Murphy, Democrat of Connecticut, said, “It’s interconnected. So if you press in one side and it pops out the other, it takes time to get this right.”
One of the toughest issues to resolve has been how to dissuade migrants from embarking on the journey to the US in the first place, particularly from countries experiencing unrest, economic calamity, or widespread gang violence.