Here's what's in the Senate's $118 billion Ukraine and border deal
Senate Democrats on Sunday released a $118.3 billion emergency national security bill that would tie a new injection of aid to Ukraine to measures to curb migration across the U.S.-Mexico border lay.
The fate of the measure, which has the support of President Biden and Senate leaders in both parties, will depend on whether enough Republicans embrace the border security provisions — a long shot given the opposition of former President Donald J. Trump and the leadership of the House of Representatives who quickly denounced it on Sunday evening as a nonstarter that is not taking enough action against migration.
The legislation will need bipartisan support to advance in the Senate this week, where it must receive at least 60 votes to advance in a test vote scheduled for Wednesday.
Here's a look at what's in the 370-page bill:
Money for Ukraine, Israel, Palestinians and the border.
The bill includes $60.1 billion in military aid to Ukraine, $14.1 billion in security assistance to Israel and $10 million in humanitarian aid for civilians in global crises – including Palestinians and Ukrainians.
It would also bring about $20 billion in border investments, including hiring new asylum and Border Patrol officers, expanding detention center capacity and increasing screenings for fentanyl and other illegal drugs.
A safe border.
One of the most significant changes to border policy would be the creation of a trigger that would effectively close the border to migrants attempting to enter the United States without authorization. The trigger would be triggered if the average number of migrants encountered by border officials exceeded 5,000 over the course of a week, or 8,500 on any given day. Encounters would need to drop to a daily average of 75 percent of those thresholds, again over the course of a week, before the affected intake processes restart.
The bill would also give the president the power to close the border if encounters with migrants average 4,000 per day for a week.
Many Republicans have argued that these thresholds are too high, and opponents of the deal are using the trigger thresholds to condemn the measure as too weak.
“Here's what the people pushing this 'deal' aren't telling you,” Rep. Steve Scalise of Louisiana, the No. 2 Republican, said in a social media post vowing never to take action on it. “It accepts 5,000 illegal immigrants a day.”
No limits on parole and aid for Afghan refugees.
Republicans tried to place limits on the president's power to allow migrants to enter the country conditionally so they could live and work temporarily. Democrats oppose such changes and are not included in the legislation, which would keep intact the programs used to allow Cubans, Nicaraguans, Venezuelans, Haitians, Ukrainians and Afghans into the United States.
It also includes a version of the Afghan Adjustment Act, a measure to create a path to citizenship for Afghans who fled the Taliban takeover and have been living in legal limbo ever since.
Putting pressure on asylum.
The bill would make it more difficult for migrants to seek asylum and would exclude the courts from the appeals process, leaving such decisions in the hands of an internal review board. It would raise the bar for migrants who say they have a “credible fear” of persecution if they return to their home countries. It also requires them to show that they could not simply have moved to another part of their home country to avoid that threat. Migrants who can demonstrate credible fear are allowed into the country to live and work until their cases are decided, and asylum officials can grant asylum on the spot to those who demonstrate an urgent need for protection.
The bill gives migrants placed in expedited deportation proceedings 72 hours to exercise the right to retain a lawyer, and guarantees that unaccompanied children aged 13 or younger are represented by a government funded lawyer.
More visas and paths to citizenship.
While the border deal does not include comprehensive immigration reform, it does include some provisions aimed at eliminating immigration backlogs by granting visas that could put certain migrants on a path to citizenship. The bill would create 250,000 eligible family and employment visas eligible for a green card, which would be distributed over five years.
The bill would also ensure that the children of immigrants who came to the United States on H-1B visas — which go to highly skilled foreign workers — would not be eligible for green cards when they reach adulthood.
Unlimited aid to Israel and a barrier to funding for UNRWA.
The bill contains no restrictions on aid to Israel, despite efforts by Democrats who have tried to ensure that weapons paid for by the United States are used in accordance with international law. It includes a ban on handing out money to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, to which the United States froze aid after Israel accused a dozen of its employees of taking part in the October 7 Hamas attack.