A bipartisan group of Senate negotiators has reached a $118 billion deal that trades sweeping border security measures for aid for Ukraine, Taiwan, and Israel. Unfortunately for them, it’s likely dead on arrival.
In short, the deal proposes new authority to quickly expel migrants arriving on the southern border at times of high demand, amounting to a massive departure from the United States’ historical commitments to asylum seekers. It also looks to close gaps in the legal immigration system that has left everyone from the children of high-skilled foreign workers to Afghan refugees in limbo. Though it’s unlikely to pass, it still matters as a signal of what Democrats are willing to concede on immigration in an election year when it’s become a major flashpoint.
The deal falls far short of the kind of comprehensive immigration reform that Congress came close to passing in 2013 and leaves certain key issues unresolved, including the fate of so-called “Dreamers” who came to the US without authorization as children. It’s scheduled for a vote in the Senate on Wednesday, and former President Donald Trump has urged Republicans not to support it.
Some of the agreed-upon border security measures are ones that Democrats, who staked out a fairly unified position in support of immigrant rights during the Trump era, wouldn’t have dreamed of supporting a few years ago. But the aftermath of Trump’s presidency, which brought about a sharp rightward shift in the politics of immigration, and the ballooning crisis at the border have driven some moderate Democrats to abandon the party line.
What’s in the bill
The White House has framed the deal as a solution to the border crisis, with Biden challenging Republicans to dare to vote against it. “Do they want to solve the problem? Or do they want to keep playing politics with the border?” he asked in a statement. But it’s unrealistic to expect that much from this bill, which includes kernels of actual…
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