Congress and the White House are considering various policies amid efforts to address the country's migrant crisis, including a new border expulsion law.
Authorities are also considering the dramatic expansion of immigration detention and deportations amid efforts to convince Republican lawmakers to back aid to Ukraine. The White House told Senate Democrats it could support those sweeping and hardline immigration policy changes as part of negotiations over President Biden's emergency funding request.
White House To Address Migrant Crisis
This is a roughly $100 billion package that includes military aid to Israel, Taiwan, and Ukraine, as well as finances to bolster border enforcement and hire additional immigration officials. For weeks, a small group of senators have tried to reach an immigration enforcement deal.
However, Republicans have conditioned that any further assistance to Ukraine should be tied to changes designed to reduce the unprecedented levels of illegal crossings along the southern border. On Tuesday, Biden and his team said they were working with Senate Democrats and Republicans to find a bipartisan compromise, as per CBS News.
They noted that the discussions include policy changes and the provision of necessary resources to secure the border. The president added that he had already offered a compromise on the issue and said that holding Ukraine funding hostage is not how it works.
The Biden administration has, in recent days, intensified its engagement with lawmakers. Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas has engaged with negotiators in the Senate this week.
Mayorkas went to Capitol Hill on Tuesday afternoon as lawmakers were talking in an attempt to reach a deal before Congress adjourns for the holidays. Furthermore, a senior Department of Homeland Security (DHS) official said that Mayorkas and other officials provided "technical assistance" to lawmakers and their staff.
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Considering Potential Compromise
White House Deputy Chief of Staff Natalie Quillian and the White House Office of Legislative Affairs director Shuwanza Goff met on the Hill with Senate negotiators alongside Mayorkas. According to Politico, these include Sens. Chris Murphy, Kyrsten Sinema, and James Lankford.
The trio of officials also met with staff from the officers of Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell. While White House Chief of Staff Jeff Zients was not present as a negotiator, he has been heavily involved in Hill engagement in the last few days. He has spoken with Democratic Senate negotiators Schumer and Lankford several times.
Republican lawmakers have argued that the record number of migrants who are crossing the southern border poses a security threat. They note that this is because authorities cannot screen all the migrants adequately. They said those entering the United States are straining the nation's resources.
Lankford is leading the negotiations and pointed to the surge of people entering the US from Mexico, saying it is "literally spiraling out of control." He added that they were simply trying to say what tools are needed to get the issue back under control. He noted that this way, there would be no chaos on the southern border, said the Associated Press.
