WASHINGTON (AP) — Senior Biden administration officials worked Wednesday to reach a last-minute deal on war aid for Ukraine, agreeing to demands from Senate Republicans to strengthen U.S.-Mexico border policies and the Reduce border crossings.
Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas was expected to resume talks with Senate negotiators despite immigrant advocates and members of President Joe Biden's Democratic Party worrying about the policies being discussed. Some planned to protest outside the Capitol and warn against a return to Trump-like restrictions.
Congress is scheduled to leave Washington on Thursday, leaving little time to reach an agreement on Biden's $110 billion request for Ukraine, Israel and other national security needs. But White House officials and key Senate negotiators appeared to narrow their list of priorities to tighten the U.S.-Mexico border and deport some migrants who recently arrived in the U.S., raising hopes that a framework could be within reach.
“This is difficult, very difficult,” Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said in a speech on the Senate floor Wednesday. “But we are sent here to do difficult things.”
Among the proposals being seriously discussed, according to several people familiar with the private discussions, are plans to allow Department of Homeland Security officials to block migrants from seeking asylum at the U.S. southern border if the total number of crossings increases exceeds the daily capacity of approximately 5,000. Some single-day totals have exceeded 10,000 this year.
Also under discussion are proposals to detain asylum seekers, including families with children, at the border, possibly with electronic monitoring systems.
Negotiators are also exploring ways to allow authorities to quickly deport migrants who have been in the United States for less than two years, even if they are far from the border. However, according to one of the people briefed on the negotiations, these deportations would only apply to people who either have not applied for asylum or have not been approved for entry into the asylum system.
The measures are similar to those that President Donald Trump's Republican administration tried to implement to restrict border crossings, but many of them have been successfully challenged in court. If Congress made them law, immigration advocates would have little legal basis to challenge the restrictions on asylum seekers.
Immigrant advocates planning demonstrations outside the Capitol on Wednesday warned of a return to anti-immigrant policies and questioned whether they would even address the problems at the border.
“I never imagined that at a moment when we have a Democratic Senate and a Democratic White House, we would come to the table and propose some of the most draconian immigration policies ever,” said American Civil Director Maribel Hernández Rivera for Politics and Governmental Affairs of the Liberties Union.
During the negotiations in the Senate, an agreement was also reached on raising the threshold for asylum applications in the first credible fear tests.
Even if a deal can be reached and passed in the Senate, House Speaker Mike Johnson of Louisiana, a Republican, would also have to push the bill through his chamber, where it is likely to face bipartisan opposition. Conservative hardliners complain that the Senate's proposals don't go far enough, while progressive Democrats and Hispanic lawmakers oppose blocking access to asylum.
Earlier this week, many members at the Capitol predicted that a deal was unlikely before Congress left for the holidays. Pessimism was also high following Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky's visit on Tuesday, imploring lawmakers to renew their support for his country's defense against Russian invasion.
But after Mayorkas met with key Senate negotiators for nearly two hours on Tuesday, lawmakers expressed renewed optimism.
Sen. Chris Murphy of Connecticut, who is leading the talks for Democrats, said the meeting involved “a group that can get this deal done if everyone is ready to get it done.”
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Associated Press writers Elliot Spagat, Seung Min Kim and Rebecca Santana contributed to this report.