New US aid package continues to be blocked by Republicans
The dialogue between Joe Biden and Republicans over Ukraine and American immigration policy remains tense. Under pressure from the right, these two issues are being negotiated together in Congress, jeopardizing the supply of important weapons and equipment to the Ukrainian army.
The Democratic president urged conservative lawmakers on Friday not to block an immigration project that has already been partially negotiated, assuring that if passed it would be “the strictest and fairest reforms we have ever had in our country” to the border to secure. Earlier, Republican Speaker of the House of Representatives Mike Johnson warned that any vote on new funding for aid to Ukraine and for strengthening the border with Mexico, where record numbers of migrants are arriving, was currently ruled out as “stillborn.”
The last shipment of American military aid to Ukraine was announced on December 27, and the White House has repeatedly said there would be no more without a budget extension. Joe Biden is calling for an increase of around 100 billion dollars (around 92 billion euros) to cover urgent needs, above all aid for Ukraine, whose main supplier of military equipment is the USA, and aid for Israel.
The parliamentary discussion is now complicated by the acceleration of the election campaign ahead of the presidential election in November, in which there is every chance that Joe Biden and Donald Trump will face off again. The former Republican president has made immigration one of his main points of attack and on Saturday underlined his rejection of the deal negotiated between the two parties in the US Congress. “A bad agreement at the border is much worse than no agreement at all!” wrote the Republican favorite for the 2024 presidential election in all caps on his Truth Social network. “Close the border!” he added.
In addition, tensions show no signs of abating between the federal government and the Republican governor of Texas, who installed barbed wire on the border with Mexico, defying Washington's authority on border patrol issues. He received the strong support of Donald Trump and many other Republican Party leaders.