Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said Wednesday that after months of negotiations with Democrats on beefing up border security, the time has come to vote.
The fate of the yet-to-be-released agreement has darkened as former President Donald Trump and House Republicans say the details that have emerged are too weak to solve the illegal immigration crisis.
A border deal would be paired with a $110 billion national security package with U.S. aid to Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan, which Mr. McConnell cited as urgently needed funding.
“It’s certainly been a challenge to try and reach an agreement on the border. That’s why we’ve been talking so long,” the Kentucky Republican said of the talks that have dragged on since last fall. “It’s time for us to move something — hopefully including a border agreement. But we need to get help to Israel and Ukraine quickly.”
Senate Republicans emerged from a long discussion behind closed doors Wednesday about whether to ditch the border talks. Leadership chose to stay the course.
Some details of the deal have emerged. It includes automatic expulsion authorities once illegal crossings reach 5,000 per day over a weekly span, a provision conservatives on both sides of the Capitol say is far too weak, even if it’s roughly half of the some 10,000 that are currently crossing most days.
House Speaker Mike Johnson, Louisiana Republican, said the package was dead on arrival in his chamber.
“We’re concocting some sort of deal to allow the president to shut down the border after 5,000 people break the law. Why is it 5,000? If you add that up, that’d be a million more illegals into our country every year before we take remedial measures,” Mr. Johnson said in his first House floor speech since becoming speaker.
“It’s madness. We shouldn’t be asking what kind of enforcement authority kicks in at 5,000 illegal crossings a day, because that number should be zero.”
The White House says it needs new powers from Congress to solve the border crisis. Republicans counter that Mr. Trump had a more secure border with the same laws that are still available to Mr. Biden.
In December 2020, the last full month under Mr. Trump, Customs and Border Protection recorded roughly 92,000 nationwide encounters with unauthorized migrants. Three years later, in December 2023, Mr. Biden saw four times that number.
The lead Democratic negotiator, Sen. Chris Murphy of Connecticut, accused conservatives of purposefully tanking the deal to give Mr. Trump a campaign issue to use against Mr. Biden.
“The problem is not the text. The problem is a Republican Conference that is considering preserving chaos at the border as a means to help Donald Trump,” Mr. Murphy said.
Senate Republicans are divided on a contingency plan for approving the foreign aid if the border deal falls through or fails to pass, as a large portion would not support a standalone package that includes Ukraine funding.
Sen. James Lankford of Oklahoma, the lead Republican negotiator, has grown increasingly frustrated with GOP opposition and escalating pressure from colleagues to release bill text.
“Republicans four months ago would not give funding for Ukraine, Israel and our southern border because we demanded changes in policy,” Mr. Lankford said Sunday on Fox News. “A few months later, when we’re finally getting to the end, they’re like, ’Oh, just kidding, I actually don’t want a change in law because it’s a presidential election year.”
• Ramsey Touchberry can be reached at rtouchberry@washingtontimes.com.
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