Republican senators say they’re weighing Biden immigration offer
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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky (left) and US President Joe Biden hold a joint news conference at the White House.
PHOTO: EPA-EFE
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WASHINGTON - President Joe Biden has offered changes to US border policy that raises the prospects of a bipartisan deal on immigration and aid to Ukraine, Republican senators said on Dec 13.
Republicans met behind closed doors to evaluate the verbal offer, which emerged after Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas met with senators for nearly two hours on Dec 12 evening.
The offer would give the president expanded authority to deport migrants once a certain number of undocumented migrants have crossed the border, Republican Senator Thom Tillis said.
But hardline Republicans said the offer doesn’t go far enough.
“Now that the White house has gotten involved, the logjam has broken a little bit,” Ohio Republican JD Vance said, after a briefing on the proposal. Still, he said, a final deal wouldn’t be ready “anytime soon.”
The Biden and Trump administrations used a similar migrant expulsion policy known as Title 42 on public health grounds during the Covid-19 pandemic. But immigrants’ rights advocates argue that such a policy would rob vulnerable migrants of their right to seek asylum in the US.
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the terms Mr Tillis laid out.
Mr Tillis and Senator Kyrsten Sinema, an independent from Arizona, have previously pushed to change a Title 42-like authority.
Mr Tillis, a key negotiator, said Republicans should put some “meat” around the White House offer and “test whether or not they’re serious.”
But the top GOP negotiator, Senator James Lankford, said there is nothing yet on paper from the White House.
Senate and House Republicans have made changes to the border a prerequisite for approving a US$61 billion (S$80 billion) package of aid for the Ukraine war that the Biden administration has requested.
On Dec 12, Ukrainian president of Volodymyr Zelensky travelled to Capitol Hill to plead for more aid and left empty-handed.
Mr Tillis and top Democratic negotiator Chris Murphy said Congress should stay in session until they strike a deal, although the House and Senate are currently set to leave on Dec 14. BLOOMBERG
