Senate negotiators on Friday reached a deal on a controversial proposal to overhaul the immigration system at the U.S. border with Mexico, clearing the way for Senate leaders to begin the difficult task of convincing Congress to pass the new bill.
They have tried to sell the deal as a national security package that will include tens of billions of dollars for Ukraine and illegal immigration enforcement — but the bill is not popular with the far-Right or far-Left.
Former President Donald Trump has already tried to scuttle the bill, as has socialist leader Rep. Cori Bush, D-M.O.
Sen. Chris Murphy, the lead Democratic negotiator, posted on social media Friday that a deal had been reached and that text of the bill would be released over the weekend. Senators are still working on finishing the rest of the package, which was initiated by a request from President Joe Biden for $110 billion for wartime aid for allies, domestic defense manufacturing, humanitarian assistance for conflicts around the world, and managing the choas at the U.S.-Mexico border.
Senators are preparing for a key test vote on the package next week, but it already faces a steep climb through Congress.
Republicans in both chambers have balked at compromises on border security policy. Senate Republicans had initially demanded that the package include border policy changes, but Trump, the GOP’s likely presidential nominee, has become a vocal opponent of the legislation.
“Republicans said the border is a priority and we should craft a bipartisan bill to help control the border. We did that. We have a deal,” Murphy said on Twitter. He added: “It’s decision time.”
The core group of negotiators has been laboring for months to craft a package that can win support from a bipartisan coalition of moderates in Congress. As they prepared to allow the details of the bill to be scrutinized, it remained to be seen whether they could cobble together the requisite bipartisan support needed from moderates.
The negotiating senators rushed to defend the bill.
“The criticisms are based on rumors and misconceptions,” Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, an Arizona independent who was central to crafting the bill, said on Thursday.
Progressive and Hispanic members of the House are expected to oppose the border policy changes in droves if it passes the Senate.
On the right, many conservatives oppose both continued funding for Ukraine as well as compromises on border enforcement. House Speaker Mike Johnson has repeatedly declared he will only accept hardline border enforcement measures, but he has said he will not pass final judgment until he can read the bill.
As GOP lawmakers view the political repercussions of enacting immigration laws during an election year, many Trump allies have argued that Congress does not even need to act because presidents already have enough authority on the border.
In a sign they will try to stop the bill from advancing to a final vote, Trump allies have lobbied leaders to give them weeks to make further changes through committee hearings.
“I think we’ve pretty much been held hostage by the Republican leadership. The Republican leadership pushed this on us,” Sen. Tommy Tuberville, a Republican of Alabama, said Thursday on Steve Bannon’s “War Room” podcast. “And now if we don’t pass something, we’re going to look bad in the eyes of the American people. But I’m just telling people right now we do not need a border policy. We already have one intact.”
The legislation, according to Sinema, largely focuses on a challenge that both Republican and Democratic administrations have grappled with: How to tamp down the growing number of people who come to the border seeking protection from persecution for their race, religion, political affiliation or membership in a discriminated group.
The U.S. border has become overwhelmed in recent years with asylum applications and illegal immigrants, creating years-long waits for asylum cases to be heard. Many migrants fail to prove their asylum case in the end, but most absuse the catch-and-release loophole and simply vanish into the U.S. and never show up at their hearings.
The bill seeks to address that by dramatically speeding up the process, making it tougher for people to enter the asylum system, and denying them the ability to apply for asylum if illegal border crossings grow to become unmanageable for authorities. Most would receive an initial interview, known as a credible fear screening, within days of arriving at the border. They would then either be expelled from the country or given a work permit during a months-long wait to have their case heard by an immigration judge.
The Associated Press contributed to this article