The US Senate on Sunday, the 4th of February, unveiled a 118-billion-dollar bipartisan border security bill that would also provide aid to Ukraine and Israel, but it immediately faced opposition from the House of Representatives, reports Reuters.
President Joe Biden has urged Congress to quickly pass the deal, including the migration measures that took months of negotiations to prepare, but Speaker of the House Mike Johnson has said it will be “dead” once it reaches his chamber.
If passed,
the bill would mark the most significant change in US immigration and border security in decades.
Some Democrats have expressed frustration that the draft does not provide for how the millions of illegal residents who have not obtained documentation but have been living in the US for years could acquire citizenship.
Independent Senator Kyrsten Sinema has stressed that the bill will include measures to protect the southern border, including the possibility of temporarily closing the border if the number of attempted crossings exceeds 5 000 per day on average over a seven-day period. Republican Senator James Lankford has proposed a possible closure of the border for three weeks in such a case.
The proposed bill includes 20.23 billion US dollars for border security, as well as significant funding for various international issues, including 60.06 billion US dollars for the Ukraine-Russia conflict, 14.1 billion US dollars for security assistance to Israel, 2.44 billion US dollars for US Central Command and the Red Sea conflict, and 4.83 billion US dollars to support Indo-Pacific partners facing Chinese aggression.
An additional ten billion US dollars is earmarked for humanitarian aid in conflict zones such as Ukraine, Gaza, and the West Bank, but this excludes funding for UNRWA due to concerns about the possible involvement of its staff in the 7th of October attacks on Israel.
While House Republicans are divided on immigration and aid to Ukraine, speaker Mike Johnson plans to hold a vote this week on a new bill providing 17.6 billion dollars in military aid to Israel, which reportedly does not include additional funding for Ukraine or US border security.
However, right-wing Republicans have expressed scepticism about the new bill,
with House Majority Leader Steve Scalise claiming that the bill would allow 5 000 illegal immigrants into the US every day, provide automatic work permits for asylum seekers and act as a magnet for even more illegal immigration.
According to a Reuters/Ipsos poll, immigration is the second biggest source of problems for Americans, and it remains a major problem for Republicans, given that in 2023 some two million migrants have been detained at the border.
For example, Donald Trump, the main contender for the Republican nomination in the November elections against President Biden, has focused much of his campaign on combating immigration.
Also read: Biden feels pressure to respond to Iran after its attack on US troops killed three
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