President Biden is begging lawmakers to advance a proposal aimed at addressing the massive surge in illegal border crossings, asserting it to be the “toughest and fairest set of reforms to secure the border” in the nation’s history.
The proposal, tied to $61.4 billion in aid to Ukraine, faces resistance in the Senate, particularly from several Republicans.
For everyone who is demanding tougher border control, this is the way to do it.
Here's my full statement on border security negotiations: pic.twitter.com/sm2IXV99Lx
— President Biden (@POTUS) January 27, 2024
Despite months of negotiations between the White House and a bipartisan group of senators, the deal appears to be dead on arrival.
The president, acknowledging the longstanding issue of a broken border, emphasized the urgency to fix it and described the negotiated bill as granting him emergency authority to shut down the border when overwhelmed.
He called for the funding requested in October to secure the border, including additional border patrol agents, immigration judges, asylum officers, and cutting-edge inspection machines to detect and stop the influx of fentanyl.
While the text of the bill remains undisclosed, Biden portrayed it as a victory for America and urged those demanding tougher border control to support the bipartisan bill.
Some Senate Republicans, including Mike Lee and Josh Hawley, criticized Biden’s statement, questioning the secrecy surrounding the negotiated deal and suggesting that the president should enforce existing laws.
Details leaked about the bill include provisions such as continuing humanitarian parole for migrants flying into the country at designated airports, granting legal counsel to unaccompanied migrant children and mentally incompetent migrants, and increasing immigrant visas to 50,000 annually.
