Could it really happen? Might the House GOP have finally found enough leverage to force Joe Biden to the bargaining table and actually do something about the ongoing border crisis that he created? According to Rick Moran at PJ Media, we may be closer to a deal than many would believe. Senate Republicans are showing some signs of life as well, and sources close to those involved in the negotiations claim that some significant concessions from the White House have already been put on the table. Of course, Biden can’t speak for the Democrats in either chamber and they might not play along, but we’re seeing more movement on this than we did throughout all of the past year. The clock is ticking and they will be running out of time very soon, so if there is a deal on the way we should expect to see it as soon as this week.
How badly does Joe Biden want that funding for Ukraine? That’s the question Republicans are asking as border negotiations tied to Ukraine funding continue this week.
If the reports about what’s been agreed to are true, Republicans have already won a big victory. Senators and the White House have reached agreements on “tightening asylum interviews, expanding expedited deportations, and creating an authority to expel migrants without humanitarian screenings when border agents are overwhelmed,” according to CBS News.
The devil is in the details, of course, and we won’t know the extent of those concessions until the deal becomes public. But considering where negotiations began in November, these are already big changes to policies the Democrats claimed were untouchable.
Obviously, Joe Biden has no interest in fixing the border crisis. In fact, you can rest assured that’s pretty much the opposite of what he would like to see, but he really wants that next tranche of money for Ukraine. So if threatening Ukraine’s border security is the only way to get the President of the United States to pay any attention to our border, I suppose you do what you have to do.
So what might we be getting if a deal is reached? The people involved are talking about “expanded” asylum interviews, expedited deportations, and the ability to expel migrants without all of the typical humanitarian screenings. That’s still nowhere near enough since there is no mention of finishing construction on the wall, but at least it’s a start. Convincing Biden that we can’t let people cut all of the razor wire along the Texas border would be a positive step as well.
One more item is also under discussion. The GOP wants Biden to massively scale back the use of what is known as immigration parole. It’s a tool many presidents have used to expedite the entry of true refugees from places in crisis. But Joe Biden has been offering it to virtually everyone who shows up and (hopefully) isn’t on the terrorist watchlist. If he’s willing to do that it would definitely be a big deal, as Joe often likes to say.
Another potential problem may be the fact that pretty much all of these negotiations have been taking place in the Senate. We aren’t hearing much from the House side of the equation at this point. House Republicans have been insistent that they already passed a border deal (HR2) so there is no need for another one. They also don’t have much support inside the caucus for any additional Ukraine funding unless it is put forward as a standalone measure, not tucked in with aid for Israel or any other priorities. If the Senate Republicans craft a plan like that, they may be making promises that they won’t be able to keep unless someone has been keeping the Speaker in the loop on all of this.
In summary, having the two sides agree to negotiate on such a critical topic is a good sign. But there isn’t enough meat on this bone yet to get too excited. I would guess that the odds still favor another case of brinksmanship and finger-pointing like we always see in these budget negotiations. And it’s all gotten too tedious for words.
