Senate border, Ukraine deal seems dead as McConnell says GOP doesn’t want to ‘undermine’ Trump
An agreement on legislation to spend more on US border security while also helping Ukraine and Israel was moribund Thursday, with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell turning away from touting the legislation as more details about the proposal emerged.
McConnell (R-Ky.), 81, forcefully made the case on the Senate floor Wednesday in favor of the $106 billion package, first requested by President Biden in October.
“This is in the United States’ direct interest for authoritarians not to feel free to redraw maps by force,” he said of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s war machine, while adding that the “Senate will very soon have a chance to restore our sovereignty at the southern border.”
But McConnell made no mention of either Ukraine or the border in his Thursday morning floor speech after hardline Republicans griped to reporters that their caucus had lost its “leverage” over the deal.
McConnell also privately acknowledged to his conference Wednesday afternoon that with former President Donald Trump on a glide path to the 2024 GOP nomination, Senate Republicans “don’t want to do anything to undermine him,” Punchbowl News reported.
“It’s good to see Leader McConnell finally came to his senses before giving Democrats everything they could possibly ask for and more in a re-election year border pivot,” a national GOP strategist told The Post of McConnell’s move.
But other Senate Republican aides stressed to The Post that McConnell’s remarks had been an analysis of their current predicament. The minority leader clarified in Thursday’s conference meeting that he still backs the deal despite it being an election year, they added.
Retiring Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) told CNN that Trump’s purported influence on the discussions was “appalling,” adding that the former president “doesn’t want us to solve the border problem because he wants to blame Biden.”
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) also issued a dire warning in his floor speech Wednesday, saying that if lawmakers don’t pass the $61.4 billion allotted in the bill for Kyiv’s war effort, “Ukraine will fall.”
“Democrats are resolute on getting something done,” Schumer added Thursday afternoon. “Of course, there are still issues that must be settled, but negotiators will work all weekend in an effort to get this done.”
Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.) and five other GOP senators came forward that afternoon to denounce the Ukraine/border deal, pledging to block any legislation that would “make it harder” for the next Republican president to crack down on illegal immigration.
“It is impossible to say for certain what this border deal contains, because the people negotiating it refuse to share details with their own party, but there is reason to believe that it would indeed parole thousands of illegal immigrants into America every day, grant work permits to them, and pre-emptively sabotage a future president from securing the border,” Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah), one of those senators, told The Post.
Some of the bill’s provisions, obtained by The Post from a source Thursday, include items that conservative Republicans have said they would oppose — including a Title 42-style authority that would only start to expel migrants who cross the border illegally when their numbers reach between 4,000 to 5,000 per day.
Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) told reporters that former Obama Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson had previously said a mere 1,000 migrants crossing per day would “overwhelm the system.”
Tens of thousands of migrants who fly into the country would also still receive humanitarian parole at designated airports, while it would be restricted at the border and US ports of entry.
The bill would further grant legal counsel to unaccompanied migrant children under the age of 13 and migrants deemed mentally incompetent — and fund non-governmental groups that assist with services such as transportation.
Other leaked provisions include an increase in immigrant visas to 50,000 annually, as well as additional work visas for spouses and children of H-1B highly skilled foreign tech workers and work permits for migrants within 180 days of their release from Customs and Border Protection custody into the US.
A Senate GOP aide confirmed that the contents of the leaked draft were “essentially accurate” based on briefings.
Sen. James Lankford (R-Okla.), who is leading the negotiations for the bill with Sens. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) and Kyrsten Sinema (I-Ariz.), has cautioned Republicans not to judge the final deal based on leaked drafts of the legislation.
A spokeswoman for Lankford did not immediately respond to a request for comment Thursday.
Lee told reporters Wednesday that he was lobbying 40 of his colleagues to vote against the measure if it is put on the Senate floor, preventing it from clearing the 60-vote threshold.
Scott also said the measure was “dead on arrival in the House,” regardless of what the upper chamber does.
“The only purpose of taking this up is getting Democrats political cover to say, ‘Gosh, we want to secure the border. But those pesky House Republicans didn’t let us,’” Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) said during Wednesday’s press conference.
“It’s a good talking point. It’s complete baloney. But it’s a good talking point. This bill represents Senate Republican leadership waging war on House Republican leadership.”
