US Senate unveils text of border security, Ukraine aid bill

Washington – US senators on Sunday released the text of a much-anticipated deal that would unlock billions in new aid for Ukraine and Israel while tightening US border laws — although its prospects for becoming law are unclear.

The so-called national security supplemental provides for $118.3 billion in total funding, including $60 billion to support war-torn Ukraine, matching the White House’s request, and $14.1 billion in security assistance to Israel, according to a summary released by Senate Appropriations Committee chair Patty Murray.

The legislation also includes $20.2 billion for US border security and a myriad of immigration policy changes agreed to by Democratic and Republican negotiators.

It is not clear that the 370-page bill has the 60 backers it will need to clear the first procedural vote in the 100-seat, Democratic-controlled Senate, expected on Wednesday at the latest.

Senators have been negotiating for months on a deal to combat illegal immigration, with Republicans insisting on bolstered border security in return for approving President Joe Biden’s funding request for Kyiv.

Release of the text was met with swift approval from the White House, which highlighted the decades-long pursuit to reform the country’s “broken” immigration system.

“Now we’ve reached an agreement on a bipartisan national security deal that includes the toughest and fairest set of border reforms in decades. I strongly support it,” Biden said in a statement.

He also urged Republicans — who control the House of Representatives and have been pressured by White House hopeful Donald Trump to oppose the deal — to back the bipartisan package.

“If you believe, as I do, that we must secure the border now, doing nothing is not an option,” he said.

House Speaker Mike Johnson had previously declared the package “dead on arrival,” although he appeared to change tack when he told Fox Business last Friday that he’s “not prejudging anything.”

– ‘Detain and deport’ –

Biden ran on restoring “humanity” to immigration — ending controversial Trump-era policies that led to families being separated at the US-Mexico border.

But Republicans dismiss his term as a failure, pointing to statistics showing border agents picking up illegal migrants a record 302,000 times in December.

For months, polling has shown Americans see the migrant crisis among their top concerns — and mostly blame Democrats for the surge.

Much of the major immigration reform that ended up in the bill was anticipated ahead of its release and were described by both sides as constituting the strictest border policy changes in decades.

“This is a once-in-a-generation opportunity to close our open border and give future administrations the effective tools they need to stop the border chaos and protect our nation,” Senator James Lankford of Oklahoma, the lead Republican negotiator, said in a statement.

He said the bill would put “a huge number of new enforcement tools in the hands of a future administration” and push the Biden administration to “finally stop the illegal flow” of migrants through border wall construction and stronger technology.

The measure calls for tougher curbs in the system for processing asylum requests and for a clampdown when crossings exceed 5,000 people a week.

Lankford said it changes US policy from “catch and release,” which allows undocumented migrants to remain at liberty as they await court appearances, to “detain and deport.”

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer called the legislation “a monumental step” towards strengthening America’s national security abroad and along our borders.”

But he cautioned Republicans against the knee-jerk reaction of trying to sink the bill simply because Trump, the party’s likely 2024 presidential nominee, opposes it.

“Senators must shut out the noise from those who want this agreement to fail for their own political agendas,” Schumer said.