WASHINGTON — Senate Republicans, who have repeatedly sent delegations to the U.S.-Mexico border, now say “Our line in the sand is the Rio Grande.” They will support tens of billions of dollars in new aid for Ukraine only if the White House and Democrats accept a clampdown at the border.
“It will be difficult to get the package across the floor in the Senate without a credible border solution,” said Sen. Minority Leader Mitch McConnell this week.
A working group of Senate Republicans — which includes Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-South Carolina, Sen. James Lankford, R-Oklahoma, and Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Arkansas — unveiled a one-page plan outlining a series of proposals that would return to some controversial hardline policies from the Trump era. The plan involves an expansion of the border wall and restrictions on asylum. It is largely a reflection of a sweeping border bill the Republican-led House already passed.
“There’s an opportunity here where we can stand with our allies, and we can also get some meaningful border security measures over the finish line if we work together for the betterment of America,” Rep. Tony Gonzales, R-San Antonio, told Spectrum News.
Senate Democratic leadership said their GOP colleagues’ requests are a “non-starter” and some Democrats in the lower chamber agree. Rep. Joaquin Castro, D-San Antonio, expressed concerns that the Senate Republicans’ proposal would create standards that would make it “almost impossible” for people to find refuge in the U.S.
“If we’re going to have any kind of bill on immigration or border security, then it should be one that is fully negotiated, where we have a chance to really sit down and negotiate on immigration on asylum, but not try to use it as a wedge, something to get in order for the Congress to approve funding for Ukraine,” Castro told Spectrum News.
This comes, as the country continues to see high levels of irregular migration to the southern border and increased backlogs in immigration courts. Immigration has vexed Congress for decades.
Gonzales, whose district includes 800 miles of the southern border, said he would like to heighten the threshold for migrants to claim asylum so that people do not get sent “down a dead end.”
Under current law, a migrant must show a “credible fear” of persecution or torture if they are returned to their country.
“There is certainly an urgency to get something done, but it has to be measured,” Gonzales said. “Raising credible fear standard makes a lot of sense to me. Increasing the deportation flights makes a lot of sense to a lot of folks across the aisle, and then, of course, not forgetting the Border Patrol agents and increasing their pay. Those are all three meaningful things I think can make a difference.”
Castro said changes to asylum must be consistent with international agreements and said a large overhaul of the system is long past due.
“All that Congress has done in the last 15 or 20 years is the border security part. We have more Border Patrol, more drones, more fencing or wall, more state resources, all of it, than we’ve ever had in American history,” said Castro. “And yet, we still have this issue of migrants who are seeking asylum in the United States at high numbers and so it’s not something that putting up a wall or something like that is just going to automatically solve.”
White House officials note the president included billions of dollars in new border enhancements as part of his proposed package of aid for Israel, Ukraine and Taiwan, but Senate Republicans are making clear they want to see policy changes in addition to the new money.
“We just don’t see anything in their proposal about creating, for example, an earned path to citizenship for Dreamers and others. There are things that are fundamentally missing,” said White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre. “We want to have a serious conversation, but we need to see something a lot more serious than what they put forward.”