CBS News: US Close To Compromise On Border With Mexico
- 28.01.2024, 22:03
It would open up aid to Ukraine.
A bipartisan group of lawmakers in Congress is close to reaching an agreement with the administration of U.S. President Joe Biden that would impose sweeping new border controls and help decide later on aid for Ukraine. This was reported by CBS News News with reference to three interlocutors familiar with the negotiations.
The interlocutors noted that after weeks of closed-door negotiations, the White House and the three senators may unveil the agreement as early as this week. The bill is designed to reduce the unprecedented level of illegal border crossings recorded along the southern border over the past three years.
The publication noted that while Republican Senator James Lankford, Democratic Senator Chris Murphy and independent Senator Kyrsten Sinema are close to finalising the compromise with the White House - any bipartisan immigration proposal will face an uphill battle in the US House of Representatives, where Speaker Mike Johnson and other conservative lawmakers are pushing for even stricter changes to the asylum system.
Disagreement among Republican lawmakers over whether to support Biden's border agreement also intensified after the 45th US president, Donald Trump, opposed it.
On January 18, the US president agreed to tougher immigration policies, as Republicans demanded, to avoid criticism and to secure aid for Ukraine.
Meanwhile, Texas began installing fencing on the border with Mexico. Texas Governor Greg Abbott said he was ready to go against federal authorities to protect the southern US border from an inflow of migrants.
On January 27, Speaker of the US House of Representatives Johnson said: if the terms of the new bill being prepared by the Senate to introduce border reform and allocate aid to Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan are true - it will be impassable and "dead" for the lower house.
White House Speaker Karyn Jean-Pierre said yesterday that Republicans in the House face a choice: whether they want to solve the border issue and aid to Ukraine, or score political points.