Measures unveiled on Sunday night face uphill battle to pass either Senate or House, leaving Ukraine and Israel uncertain over future assistance
Some Senate Democrats are also objecting to the immigration deal, arguing it unnecessarily dismantles protections for migrants.
California’s Alex Padilla argues the proposal is inconsistent with international law, and was negotiated by the wrong people:
It is critical that we support our allies in their fight to defend democracy and provide humanitarian relief, but not at the expense of dismantling our asylum system while ultimately failing to alleviate the challenges at our border.
Read my full statement below. pic.twitter.com/OSNVqsBM5Y— Senator Alex Padilla (@SenAlexPadilla) February 5, 2024
New Jersey’s Bob Menendez also came out against it, saying the chamber was being set up to vote on the proposal without having enough time to review it. Like Padilla, he objected to Hispanic lawmakers not being involved in its negotiation. “Could you imagine a voting rights deal coming together without start-to-finish input from the Congressional Black Caucus? Unimaginable! An immigration deal without any input from the Congressional Hispanic Caucus and immigration advocates should be equally unimaginable. Yet here we are,” Menendez said.
He also said the bill was too conservative. Here’s more from Menendez:
This package — which we have just begun to study — doesn’t exactly inspire confidence. These changes are permanent in nature without any meaningful relief for the 12 million undocumented immigrants in the country, including Dreamers that have lived here for a decade or more. Major chunks of this legislation read like an enforcement wish list from the Trump administration, and directly clash with the most basic tenets of our asylum system. It would permanently contort our asylum system by making it harder for asylum seekers to have their claims heard and making it impossible for asylum claims to be adjudicated at all based on arbitrarily set trigger numbers that could shut down our border.
