Republicans, With Trump’s Nomination Getting Closer, Grow Pessimistic About Deal on Immigration Reform and Aid to Ukraine

As President Trump rolls toward his party’s presidential nomination, Republicans in Congress who are supportive of an immigration reform pact as well as additional aid to Ukraine seemingly lack for a path forward on a compromise deal ahead of the presidential election. According to several members of Congress who spoke with the Sun, there is no “plan B” to get Ukraine aid through the legislative branch should the immigration reform and border security deal fail. In contrast with the political infighting that has so far blocked attempts to renew American aid for Ukraine’s war effort, the European Union on Thursday announced that it had agreed on a $54 billion package for Kyiv.“I hope so,” Senator Tillis of North Carolina says when asked if Republicans will move the Ukraine aid package forward even if the immigration deal falls apart. “I think we will be making a huge mistake, but I’m going to do everything I can.”“I hope there’s a plan B — I don’t go through life without a plan B,” Senator Young of Indiana says. “I don’t know if there’s a path forward,” Senator Cramer of North Dakota says. “We’ll see what happens.”The chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Congressman Michael McCaul, who wants to see the immigration reform and Ukraine aid compromise make its way through Congress, says he thinks Speaker Johnson may put it on the floor, but has received no guarantees from leadership. “I think the border deal,” currently being hammered out in the Senate, “may be dead on arrival in the House,” he adds.Mr. McCaul has been a staunch supporter of the foreign aid package that President Biden sent last year to Congress. It includes more than $100 billion for Ukraine, Israel, Free China, and border security. He hopes the speaker will put it on the floor for a full vote — but has won no promises. “I think it’s easier if Ukraine is attached … I feel all of these threats are tied together,” Mr. McCaul says. “Even if the border is dropped off, I still like the fact of tying Putin to Chairman Xi to the ayatollah — they’re all three in this together.”Mr. Trump has been bashing the Senate border deal constantly since the three negotiators — Senators Lankford of Oklahoma, Murphy of Connecticut, and Sinema of Arizona — neared the compromise. He said on Truth Social that a “BAD BORDER DEAL IS FAR WORSE THAN NO BORDER DEAL.”Mr. Johnson has proved to be firmly in the Trump camp of anti-border deal and anti-Ukraine aid legislators. He has dodged questions on whether he will even put a foreign aid package on the floor, and says he speaks with the former president almost daily about the immigration and border deal. “We have a responsibility here to do right by the American people,” he said at a Tuesday press conference about the immigration proposal. “We are not doing that under President Biden. … President Trump is the one who wants to secure the country.”Messrs. Trump and Johnson have said explicitly that they want the border shut completely, with zero migrants crossing any non-port of entry along the more than 2,000-mile southern border. The House, for its part, has already passed its own bill to strengthen security along the border. That measure would, among other things, require the completion of a wall along the border.“Close the Border, you do not need a ridiculous Border Bill that will allow 5000 people into our Country a day,” the former president said of the emerging Senate pact on his Truth Social platform. “Call it the ‘Stupid Bill’ and make sure it doesn’t get passed. It will make things MUCH WORSE. CLOSE THE SOUTHERN BORDER, NO BILL NECESSARY!!!”The leaked details of the border deal show that senators are considering giving the president the authority to close the border in the event that illegal crossings reach a 5,000 daily average over the course of a week, or if illegal crossings hit 8,500 in just one day. Mr. Johnson says that is a nonstarter, dooming the legislation — even if it gets out of the Senate — in his own chamber. “The number must be ZERO,” Mr. Johnson said in a statement.

Republicans, With Trump’s Nomination Getting Closer, Grow Pessimistic About Deal on Immigration Reform and Aid to Ukraine

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