Former President Donald Trump urged Republicans to move forward with border legislation separate from aid to Ukraine in a Truth Social rant urging the GOP to reject the long-awaited Senate legislation unveiled Sunday—imperiling months of negotiations as Republicans sought to tie foreign aid to stricter border controls.
Republican presidential candidate and former president Donald Trump speaks to supporters at The ... [+]
Trump re-upped his fraught claim that President Joe Biden has the authority to “close the border now,” despite court rulings that have allowed Biden to end a number of more restrictive Trump-era immigration policies, including “Remain in Mexico” and the pandemic-era Title 42.
Trump also called the bill a political “gift” to Democrats and President Joe Biden during an election year, claiming it “absolves” Democrats of “the HORRIBLE JOB” they’ve “done on Immigration and the Border,” and “puts it all squarely on the shoulders of Republicans.”
He also suggested border legislation should be separate from foreign aid, contradicting Republicans who have made passage of Ukraine aid contingent on stricter border controls.
Trump’s latest push against the border bill comes after the Senate unveiled bipartisan legislation on Sunday that would allow the president to restrict the number of asylum applicants at ports of entry if illegal crossings exceed 5,000 per day on average, but still process at least 1,400 applicants daily, while speeding up the asylum process.
It’s unclear if the bill can pass the Senate, where it needs 60 votes to break the filibuster. A procedural vote is set to take place in the upper chamber as soon as Wednesday, and the outcome will be indicative of whether it has the support to move forward. House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) has declared the legislation “dead on arrival” in the lower chamber as he and other House Republicans have instead advocated for passage of the House-approved immigration bill known as H.R. 2, which would implement stricter asylum controls, including requiring most asylum seekers to remain in Mexico or a federal detention facility while their cases move through the system.
Senate negotiators unveiled the $118 billion legislative package Sunday after months of negotiations that have held up additional aid to Ukraine as Republicans have demanded stricter border controls be tied to the bill. The deal includes about $60 billion in security assistance for Ukraine, plus $14.1 billion for Israel and $20.2 billion for additional border control measures. The legislation has support from Senate leadership, including Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), but a number of Senate Republicans, including National Republican Senatorial Committee Chair Steve Daines (R-Mont.), have expressed plans to vote against the bill, with Daines calling on Biden to instead re-implement the “Title 42” and “Remain in Mexico” programs that were ended during the Biden administration. Neither program is likely to be reinstated as courts have ruled against Republican states that sought to block Biden from ending “Remain in Mexico” and Title 42, which allowed border officials to deny migrants based on the risk of spreading Covid-19, effectively ended in May with the expiration of the federal public health emergency. Biden has taken a harder stance on immigration in recent weeks as it’s become a prominent issue for his re-election campaign amid record-high levels of immigration, declaring that the Senate legislation would allow him to “shut down” the border. He said Sunday he “strongly support[s]
Trump has proposed even stricter border controls if re-elected than the ones he implemented as president, including mass arrests and deportations of undocumented immigrants. He has also used increasingly incendiary rhetoric in discussing the issue, accusing immigrants of “poisoning the blood of our country,” a line widely criticized for echoing Adolf Hitler.
Biden’s tough talk on immigration risks alienating some in his progressive base. Multiple Democratic senators have come out against the bill, including Latino lawmakers Sens. Alex Padilla (D-Calif.) and Bob Menendez (D-N.J.), with Menendez calling it “unacceptable” and claiming it was negotiated without the input of immigrant communities. The bill faces similar opposition from House progressives. Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) expressed “alarm” over the deal, including what she called “unrealistic standards and timelines” for presenting asylum claims.