Senate negotiations heating up on aid, southern border talks

Transcend · 11-10-2023, 02:34 AM

Quote:

Hill talks are heating up over funding for Israel, the southern border and Ukraine.

But while the shape of a deal that could appease both parties and the White House remains murky, one thing is abundantly clear: There’s no way JOE BIDEN is walking out of the negotiations unscathed.

Anxiety levels have been high since we reported last week that, to win GOP votes on the spending package, the administration would be open to potential changes that would deny more migrants the opportunity to apply for asylum.

Now in a letter sent to the White House today, first obtained by West Wing Playbook, nearly 200 immigration groups and progressive organizations are urging Biden to reject policy and funding proposals that would limit access to asylum and to fulfill his campaign promises to “restore the asylum system.”

“We are appalled by proposals that would eliminate or reduce asylum protections at precisely the moment in which protections for people seeking asylum are most needed,” the groups wrote in the letter organized by Human Rights First, National Immigration Law Center and National Immigrant Justice Center.

“These proposals, including statutory changes to asylum law and major funding expansions to detain and rapidly remove people seeking asylum, would lead to violations of international law, and would violate your campaign commitment to restore the asylum system after the prior administration decimated it.”

Biden will almost certainly have to sign off on some border compromises that come out of Hill talks. He continuously faces heat on the immigration issue, and has been lambasted for reimplementing DONALD TRUMP-era policies such as the so-called transit ban.

White House assistant press secretary ANGELO FERNÁNDEZ HERNÁNDEZ said the president supports “comprehensive reforms” to the immigration system, which is why he sent a bill to Congress immediately upon taking office in 2021.

“If Republicans want to have a serious conversation about reforms that will improve our immigration system, we are open to a discussion,” he said. “We disagree with many of the policies contained in the new Senate Republican border proposal. Further, we do not see anything in their proposal about creating an earned path to citizenship for Dreamers and others. Congress should fund the President’s supplemental request to secure the border now.”

Both the White House and Senate Dems rejected the initial GOP supplemental package that included stricter asylum, curtailed humanitarian parole policies and would build the border wall. But the new bipartisan negotiating group — which includes Sens. THOM TILLIS (R-N.C), KYRSTEN SINEMA (I-Ariz.), JAMES LANKFORD (R-Okla.), CHRIS MURPHY (D-Conn.), MICHAEL BENNET (D-Colo.), LINDSEY GRAHAM (R-S.C.) and TOM COTTON (R-Ark.) — has left advocates and immigration policy experts nervous about what compromises might emerge from the talks. They feel now is time to put pressure on Biden before it’s too late.

“Making fundamental changes to asylum law and immigration policy in the context of politicized and rapid negotiations on government spending is antithetical to the United States government’s obligations to people fleeing life-threatening harm and exercising their lawful right to seek asylum,” said MARY MEG MCCARTHY, executive director of the National Immigrant Justice Center.

While top Biden aides worked the phones last week to discuss potential changes to the credible fear standard with advocates and Dems, they have been less present in negotiations this week. But there’s growing worry that the president’s party is a political tight spot.

Thought I'd share this with you all as it's quite interesting. I like how most Senators on the negotatiors table -like Bennett, Graham, Lankford, Thillis and Sinema- are or have been pro-Dreamers in the past. The hope is they can strike a reasonable balance on their give and takes. Let's stay tuned.

If any of them are your Senator, please make sure to call or write to them. Positive change starts from the ground up.

We are our own advocates!

hDreamer1988 · 11-10-2023, 03:53 PM

Yeah I read this article as well... Dems know they F***ed up managing the border and big changes are needed.. but they are trying to hide that fact.
I do not think Dreamers are even part of this conversation... they are talking about border security for Ukraine funding... I am not sure the House would even accept a bill with any kind of "amnesty" in it...

vft1008 · 11-10-2023, 05:26 PM

That season again?

Same shit, different toilet.

Transcend · 11-10-2023, 11:57 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by hDreamer1988

Yeah I read this article as well... Dems know they F***ed up managing the border and big changes are needed.. but they are trying to hide that fact.
I do not think Dreamers are even part of this conversation... they are talking about border security for Ukraine funding... I am not sure the House would even accept a bill with any kind of "amnesty" in it...

Yeah totally agree with you on the admin's bad handling of the border. So I think they have a secret desire to make asylum and border tighter. However, based on the WH press sec messaging, it def seems they are hinting what they would like in return: dreamer pathway.

hDreamer1988 · 11-12-2023, 03:33 PM

UPDATE:

Looks like talks are already dead. Looks like dems want to add the entire illegal immigration population to the bill and not just keep it focused on dreamers...

https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/...f-ukraine-aid/

Quote:

Bipartisan talks on a border security package are complicating work on an emergency spending package requested by the Biden administration, raising more questions about whether Congress will find a way to provide aid to Ukraine by the end of the year.

A group of senators, including Sens. James Lankford (R-Okla.), Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) and Kyrsten Sinema (I-Ariz.), have discussed the potential contours of a border item, but differences over the contours of a border deal are putting the whole package in jeopardy.

Republicans are pressing for the talks to be centered narrowly on the border and argue that any bill that does not deal with decreasing the number of people crossing the border will not fly with their members.

Across the aisle, Democrats are demanding that Republicans deal not just with border security but with measures that would allow people to immigrate into the country.

It’s a seemingly intractable divide that has long bedeviled lawmakers in both parties, and it now endangers the aid to Ukraine.

“There’s a reason why we haven’t done bipartisan immigration reform in 40 years,” Murphy told reporters Thursday.

Murphy, well-known for his advocacy for gun control, said the border talks feel “harder” than last year’s gun safety negotiations, which did end with a deal.

“I’m not confident we’ll get there,” he said. “This is still a bit of a triple bank shot.”

The foursome, along with other members who are pitching in with talks, have been working throughout the weekend on the border portion of the emergency supplemental spending package.

Murphy told reporters that he wants a deal before lawmakers break for the Thanksgiving recess, while Tillis is aiming for one by the end of the year. The North Carolina Republican exclaimed “oh gosh no” when asked about striking a deal before Thanksgiving.

Republicans are adamant that this bill will not include immigration items that Democrats will want as part of any package. When The Hill asked Lankford about the negotiations, he made it clear the talks were about the border and not immigration.

“It really is,” Lankford said. “It’s a national security bill, so we’re dealing with all national security issues.”

“We’re talking about border security,” said Tillis, who noted that items like citizenship for Dreamers is off the table in this series of talks.

“That’s not what we’re talking about. We’re talking about fixing a problem that’s so pronounced at the border that we can’t even have a discussion about that population right now because this administration’s allowed the problem to get so bad.”

Murphy repeatedly declined to delve into the talks with reporters this week, but he indicated that without some Democratic priorities garnering inclusion that center on nonborder issues, the bill will have trouble getting across the finish line.

“Our party doesn’t view the issue of immigration as just an issue that’s happening at the border,” he said. “We care about Dreamers, and we care about how long it takes to get a final conclusion. We care about legal immigration numbers.”

Another big question is whether anything the Senate negotiators can agree to would pass muster with House Republicans.

Senators engaged on a possible immigration component ahead of the Sept. 30 government funding deadline to potentially grease the skids of a bill with the House GOP, but that effort was quickly dropped as negotiators in the Senate realized nothing they could pass would do the trick for them.

“I don’t even have confidence in a given week whether I’m going to be dealing with the same Speaker,” Tillis said when asked about concerns with the House. “So right now I’m just trying to solve it in the Senate.”

One Senate source noted that the group has been discussing the issue for much of the year, which included a visit to the border in January.

A group of Senate Republicans last week unveiled a border proposal based largely on H.R. 2, the House GOP’s bill, that would curtail border access and set tighter restrictions on those seeking asylum. Murphy told reporters that the group is “not working off of that” blueprint, but Senate Republicans are increasingly coming under pressure to adopt portions of that proposal.

The Heritage Foundation sent a memo to top Senate staffers late last week panning the talks, arguing that the current legislative item being discussed “falls woefully short.”

“It omits key H.R. 2 provisions, is poorly drafted, and sets a trap for Democrat political cover tradeoffs in negotiations that will do little to address the crisis,” the memo read.

Without an immigration deal, it is unlikely that Ukraine aid would move given the growing skepticism within the GOP and conservative ranks as part of a supplemental that would also include aid for Israel, Taiwan and humanitarian purposes.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) had been in lockstep with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) but tossed his support behind a border component in a bid to bring enough of his conference around to back the $105 billion supplemental. While the other parts of the supplemental are widely popular, headlined by the aid for Israel, it’s Ukraine and the border that will shape the supplemental in the near term.

“When we address that crisis, then it will help provide the votes for security aid for Ukraine,” said Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.). “The reality is if President Biden wants Ukraine aid to pass, we’re going to have to have substantial border policy changes.”

beingoflight · 11-16-2023, 01:09 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by hDreamer1988

UPDATE:

Looks like talks are already dead. Looks like dems want to add the entire illegal immigration population to the bill and not just keep it focused on dreamers...

https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/...f-ukraine-aid/

i pray for a republican majority on next presidency under Trump,

demonrats wont do sht on immigration with their legalization for all or nothing bullsht, at least the repubs got a chance to ram citizenship only for us during an emergency like when DACA gets killed by SCOTUS.

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Senate negotiations heating up on aid, southern border talks