Why the immigration and aid agreement for Ukraine failed in the United States Senate

On Wednesday, Senate Republicans USA blocked the bipartisan agreement on immigration and border security, which included the military aid package for Ukraine and Israel. Although the pact was destined to fail in the House of Representatives, there was an expectation that it would get the 60 votes needed in the Senate for it to advance.

He bill had been negotiated by democrats and of republicans for months with the president’s government Joe Bidenwho had ended up giving in to the pressures of the conservatives on the issue of security border with Mexico.

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The rule was so severe with the undocumented immigrants which was harshly criticized by human rights organizations, as it contemplated the most restrictive changes to United States immigration law in decades.

The entire legislative package totaled $118.2 billion. Of that money, senators had agreed to allocate more than $60 billion in military aid to Ukraine14 billion dollars to Israel and 4.8 billion to Taiwan. In addition, $10 billion was going to be for humanitarian aid in Ukraine, Israel, Gaza and elsewhere. Another 20 billion dollars would be allocated for security on the border with Mexico.

The money for the border security contemplated the hiring of thousands of officers who were going to be in charge of evaluating the asylum applications to speed up the process, which currently can take up to 10 years.

The Senate agreement contemplated that the asylum process It was to take a period of six months for a response to the applicant. It would also make it more difficult for immigrants demonstrate that they are eligible to receive asylum. In the case of those rejected, their deportation was going to be almost immediate.

The bed capacity was going to be increased in the prisons of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) for detained immigrants.

He covenant gave to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) the possibility of taking drastic measures such as closing the borders if the average daily border crossings reached a certain number.

In addition, limits were going to be imposed on the call humanitarian parolewhich enables people who are outside of USA to request a temporary stay permit in the country for urgent humanitarian reasons or significant public benefit.

$1.4 billion was also going to be allocated to programs related to shelters, which have been overwhelmed in recent times due to the massive influx of migrants.

It was going to speed up. the granting of work permits for migrants who are already in the United States waiting for their asylum application to be resolved.

In addition, hundreds of new agents of the Border Patrol They were going to help stop the flow of fentanyl that enters the country through the crossings with Mexico.

These and other measures foundered when the vote in the Senate failed. The proposal obtained 49 votes in favor and 50 against.

What happened?

Since late last year, Republicans have blocked a vital aid package for Ukraine for about 60,000 million dollars. They do not want to give the green light to the new game if before Biden does not harden immigration controls at the border. All this discussion takes place in a context of the electoral campaign for the presidential elections in November of this year in USAwhere the Democrat will seek re-election and will likely face donald trumpwho has made the migration one of the strong themes of his speeches.

As the Republicans demanded, Biden agreed to include the border security in the packagebut it did not help to get the green light for aid to Ukrainewhich was its main objective.

The same day the pact was revealed, donald trump began pressuring Republicans to scrap it.

“Only an idiot, or a radical left-wing Democrat, would vote for this horrible border bill that only gives closure authority after 5,000 interceptions a day when we already have the right to CLOSE THE BORDER NOW, which must be done,” he said the tycoon

Furthermore, the leader of the House of Representativesthe republican Michael Johnsonhad immediately declared her opposition to the measure, and announced that if it reached the chamber it would be “dead.”

On Wednesday, a majority of Republicans voted against the deal, including those who initially supported it.

Only four Republicans voted in favor of the bill, including James Lankfordthe representative of this party in negotiations with the Democrats.

Even Mitch McConnellthe leader of the Republicans in the Senate, turned his back on the proposal.

On the part of the Democrats, five senators broke with their party’s position and spoke out against it. They did not agree with the immigration restrictions.

The outcome of this story confirms the strong influence that trump in the Republican leadership. It was enough for the tycoon to harshly criticize the pact for it to begin to fall apart.

What will happen to aid for Ukraine and other allies?

After the failure of the agreed law, the leader of the Democratic majority in the Senate, Chuck Schumerproposed saving part of it by eliminating the immigration reform and maintaining aid Ukraine and other allies.

On Thursday, the Senate voted in favor of advancing the amputated project, which would provide aid to Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan totaling $95 billion.

The vote was 67 in favor and 32 against. In accordance with Telemundonow the next steps are uncertain and it is not yet clear if the promoters will obtain the necessary votes for its final approval.

“It’s a good first step. “This bill is essential to our national security,” he said. Schumer after the vote. “Not approving it would only embolden autocrats like Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping, who want nothing more than the decline of the United States. “We now hope to reach an agreement with our Republican colleagues.”

Telemundo reported that senators prefer to close the aid package before the 15-day recess scheduled for next week. After that, Congress’ priority will be a government funding deadline in early March.

If the bill passes in the Senate, it will go to the House of Representativeswhere prospects are uncertain.

And border control?

After the failure of the pact in the Senate, the president Biden has some options to implement border security measures to contain the high flow of migrants without having to go through congressional approval.

In accordance with Univision, Biden can imitate trump and impose a zero-tolerance policy at the border, using the president’s executive authority. But the problem, as happened to the Republican, is that he exposes himself to lawsuits in the courts of law.

The main argument used by those who opposed the immigration policy of trump, indicates Univisión, was that the White House violated the Administrative Procedure Act (APA) that regulates the executive branch. The legislation stipulates that, before proceeding with a rule change, the new rule must first be published in the Federal Register and open a space for public comment.

After that time, the government must take the public’s recommendations and include them in a final rule that must also be published in the Federal Register before it takes effect.

On Wednesday, NBC reported that the White House would be considering taking executive action to deter and stop the arrival of foreigners to the southern border seeking asylum.

That medium cited two Biden Administration officials, who told him that the use of presidential executive power was going to be a response to the failure of bipartisan negotiations in the Senate.