US congressmen and senators returned home for Christmas. Behind them, on Capitol Hill, two of Washington's most pressing issues have been put on hold until 2024: passing measures to address the immigration crisis and helping Ukraine defend itself against Russian aggression.
The House of Representatives lowered the blinds on December 14th. Faced with the absence of those who wanted to advance their rest days, senators extended their working days until the 20th, in the hope of the leaders of both parties, Democrat Chuck Schumer and Republican Mitch McConnell, to reach an agreement in extremis. It couldn't be. The two problems are also related. Republicans do not want to open the tap to Kiev unless this is done in exchange for commitments to strengthen border controls.
President Joe Biden has proposed a $110 billion (100 billion euros) package of military aid for Ukraine and Israel, as the Pentagon warns that its funds for that purpose are running out as the third winter of the war begins as Russian troops advance on the Eastern Front before. Meanwhile, Biden signed an executive order on Friday that threatens sanctions against foreign financial institutions that help Moscow evade sanctions imposed by the United States and its allies, and gives Washington the ability to expand import bans on certain products such as seafood and diamonds . Additionally, according to the New York Times, the Biden administration is working to seize more than $300 billion in Russian Central Bank assets hidden in Western financial institutions to support Ukraine's war effort.
Negotiations on both issues continued in the Senate until last Wednesday, a “hopeful” outcome, Schumer said, but not enough to provide the American people with a test of understanding between the parties in the same week they returned to negotiations offer. Newspaper front pages featured images of thousands of people waiting in the open at Eagle Pass Pass, Texas, to be processed by immigration officials. And in which Texas, whose governor, the strict Greg Abbott, has passed some of the toughest laws in the country, began sending flights carrying migrants to cities like Chicago, a new twist on his program to lock them on buses bound for strongholds of the Democrats drove like Washington or New York.
Two Border Patrol agents monitor a group of Hondurans who recently arrived in Texas from Honduras.CHENEY ORR (Portal)
Perhaps Schumer was naive in thinking he could convince his opponents in stoppage time and in one of the problems most facing the two Americas. Republicans, who are in the midst of the race to nominate their candidate for the November elections, know that migration is one of their best weapons against Bien, the Democratic candidate, as the election year begins.
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Trump's rhetoric
These days will also be remembered by the words of Donald Trump, who was by far the president's best opponent in the polls. At a rally in New Hampshire, one of the first states to enter the primary, Trump ratcheted up his anti-immigrant rhetoric (if possible), promising “the largest deportation of undocumented immigrants in history” when he returns to the White House come to the United States “to poison the blood of the country,” a phrase that earned him criticism for its echo of Adolf Hitler's Mein Kampf manifesto (the former president later said that he had not read the Führer , but he did it). don't give up on continuing to use the toxic image).
When Trump engages in this rhetoric, he does so knowing that discontent does not just come from the extremes. According to an average of recent Real Clear Politics polls, 62% of Americans disapprove of their government's handling of the issue. Fiscal year 2023 (which runs October through September compared to the previous year) left more than 3.2 million “encounters,” a euphemism that obscures the number of immigration apprehensions by Border Patrol agents. The number shattered all records from previous years; also that of 2022, which broke all records with 2.7 million arrests.
The Biden administration has taken a rightward turn on the issue, which was evident in October when the president gave the green light to strengthening the border wall, even as he arrived at the White House promising to abandon one of Trump's star projects. In early December, Biden announced that he was ready to make “significant commitments” on his border policy to block aid to Ukraine.
The White House is poised to change key pillars of immigration policy, such as asylum, in a negotiation led by Alejandro Mayorkas, Biden's homeland security secretary. The government offered to limit the granting of this status to 5,000 people per day. This week the numbers reached 10,000. Most people arriving at the border take advantage of this number, which allows them to live in the country while an immigration judge reviews their case, which can even take several years due to the system's overload. Republicans are proposing to increase residency requirements for immigrants at the end of a process that begins with an interview to demonstrate a “credible threat” of returning to their country. Anyone who fails this test will be sent back immediately. The possibility of providing applicants with a GPS, like that used in house arrests, is also being considered.
Republicans also want the administration to significantly reduce the number of humanitarian visas it grants. It was one of Biden's most privileged programs, allowing the arrival of 270,000 people (until last October). Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans and Venezuelans were particularly popular, but Ukrainians who left their country after the Russian invasion were also represented in this number.
Volodymyr Zelensky and Joe Biden appear at a press conference during the former's recent visit to the White House, 12 December 2021. MICHAEL REYNOLDS (EFE)
Also on the table is the rapid deportation of those who have been in the country for less than two years and have not applied for asylum, regardless of where they are in the United States. This tool, expedited expulsion, was widely used during the administrations of Donald Trump and Barack Obama, who hold the record for deportations in the country's modern history.
Human rights organizations warn about the possible impact of the negotiations, which will resume in 2024. “Any concession against immigrants is unacceptable and represents a betrayal of our values as a country,” said the NGO Al Otro Lado. “We are entering an election year and the president will begin to seek the support of the groups that have built his coalition to succeed in 2020, including Latinos.” If these immigration measures become law, there really won't be any Make a difference from Trump's anti-immigrant policies,” say Maribel Hastings and David Torres of America's Voice, another group that defends undocumented immigrants.
Criticism doesn't just come from civil society. Alex Padilla, California's only Latino senator, has warned his party that giving in to Republican demands in 2024 could be disastrous. According to the AP agency, the lawmaker who was excluded from the discussions complained to negotiators about the White House. Because the new proposal does not include a way to grant citizenship to millions of undocumented people, one of the first promises Biden made when he came to power. At a party in Los Angeles to raise money for Biden's re-election, the senator urged the president to be wary of being lured into “harmful policies” by the radical wing of the opposition.
To find out whether the president and the Democratic Party want to pay attention to him or not, we will have to wait until next year, when the Capitol returns to work after the Christmas recess.
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