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US Senate unveils bipartisan bill on border security, military aid

New York City, Feb 4 (EFE).- The United States Senate on Sunday unveiled a bipartisan $118 billion military aid and border security bill, which aims to deter immigrants from crossing the border between the United States and Mexico and also provide help for Ukraine and Israel.

The bill includes $60 billion in military aid to Ukraine, $14 billion to Israel, $4.8 billion to Taiwan, and $20 billion for border security.

Democratic Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer announced in a statement that he would hold the first procedural vote on the legislation on Wednesday.

“The Senate’s bipartisan agreement is a monumental step towards strengthening America’s national security abroad and along our borders. This is one of the most necessary and important pieces of legislation Congress has put forward in years to ensure America’s future prosperity and security,” Schumer said.

He added that this draft “provides billions in vital investments in America’s national security to address growing threats in the Middle East and the Red Sea, equips Ukraine to fight off Putin, helps Israel defend itself against forces that wish to wipe a Jewish state off the map while also providing humanitarian assistance to innocent Palestinian civilians in Gaza, answers the call for humanitarian assistance around the world, and strengthens Taiwan and other allies in the Indo-Pacific region against China.”

President Joe Biden highlighted in a statement that this proposal will make the border with Mexico “more secure” while “preserving legal immigration.”

It would give Biden temporary emergency authority to close the border when the system is overwhelmed, the statement said.

In December, border officials processed more than 300,000 foreigners, the largest number of migrants ever recorded in a month.

The proposal also raises the bar for migrants to qualify to apply for asylum and increases the ability to detain them.

The bill also encourages faster resolutions for asylum cases at the border and creates a new expedited removal authority to quickly eject immigrants who do not qualify for asylum.

This legislation is one of the Biden administration’s main priorities, especially in view of his re-election.

However, this bipartisan proposal has a difficult road ahead, since some congressmen, mostly Republicans, have already criticized the measure.

Before the draft was announced, the speaker of the US House of Representatives, Republican Mike Johnson, called the proposal dead on arrival in Congress.

Migrant rights advocates have also criticized the project because it leaves out the nearly 11 million undocumented immigrants that Biden promised to help to approve a path to legalization.

The National Hispanic Caucus of State Legislators (NHCSL) said after the announcement of the draft on Sunday, that although the bill has some good qualities – such as allocating $2.3 million for assistance to recently arrived refugees – there are several points with which they do not agree.

“Restricting the Executive’s faculties to grant parole and asylum will keep families apart and put people in harm’s way; and we are not confident that the new expedited asylum process will be fair,” the NHCSL noted in a statement.

Additionally, the organization notes that additional funding for the Operation Stonegarden Grant Program (OPSG) “might promote further deadly abuses.”

“Attempts to drastically curb immigration will hurt the economy,” added NHCSL.

The American Civil Rights Union (ACLU)’s executive director Anthony Romero was even more critical, pointing out that this agreement “would force the government to summarily expel people from the border without due process, restricting legal pathways for the people who need them most.”

“This deal also fails to deliver on years of promises to enact reforms providing pathways to citizenship for Dreamers and other longtime residents,” he said. EFE

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