(UnitedVoice.com) – The immigration crisis has plagued President Joe Biden’s administration since the beginning. Millions of immigrants have crossed into the US since he took office. The president has indicated he’s willing to make significant changes to border policy in order to pass aid for Ukraine.
On December 6, Biden gave a speech in the White House’s Roosevelt Room about getting negotiations for Ukraine aid back on track. The president reiterated to Republicans that he believes Congress needs to pass a law to fix the broken immigration system. He said that he’s “willing to do significantly more” and “willing to change policy as well.”
Biden said he has asked Congress for billions of dollars in new funding to provide “more border agents, more immigration judges, and more asylum officers.”
The White House has asked lawmakers to pass a $106 billion package of supplemental funding. The money would provide military aid to Ukraine, Israel, the Indo-Pacific region, and fund border enforcement in the US.
Republicans have said they don’t want all of the aid in one package. They want to pass funding for Israel separately and tie Ukraine’s aid to border security. Senate Republicans stopped the president’s aid package from moving forward the same day he gave the impassioned speech at the White House.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) gave his own speech on the floor of the Senate and said, “Legislation that doesn’t include policy changes to secure our borders will not pass” the upper chamber. He called the issues at the border a “crisis of historic proportions.”
According to reports, negotiations are ongoing. Senators have reportedly agreed to make it harder for migrants to seek asylum. But lawmakers were still arguing over whether to place limits on humanitarian parole, a program allowing the executive branch to admit migrants temporarily. Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) has called on Biden to get directly involved in the negotiations.
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