With Congress scheduled to depart for Christmas recess this week, additional U.S. aid to Ukraine and Israel may hinge on a contentious debate over U.S. immigration policies – and both of New Jersey’s senators are making clear that they don’t like where things are headed.
Last week, the Democratic-controlled Senate failed to advance an aid package for Ukraine and Israel thanks to GOP opposition. Republicans have demanded that the aid be paired with substantial changes to American asylum laws focused on reducing the number of migrants arriving at the U.S. border, changes which Senators Bob Menendez and Cory Booker said today should be a non-starter.
“My colleagues in Congress and in the administration share the same goals: to create orderly, safe, and humane border and immigration policies that respect our laws and our sovereignty,” Booker said in a statement. “Right now, as negotiations on a supplemental funding bill continue, it is critical to recognize that proposals to eliminate or severely reduce access to asylum and parole will not accomplish these goals.”
“President [Joe] Biden is badly mistaken to think Democrats in Congress will agree to Trump-era, anti-immigrant policies that will gut our asylum and humanitarian parole laws, which are the bedrock of our country,” Menendez agreed. “There is bipartisan agreement that it is in America’s national security interests to support our allies in Israel and Ukraine – there should be no preconditions on this aid.”
Since Republicans control the House and have 49 seats in the Senate, they ultimately have the power to quash any deal they don’t like – although then again, so do Democrats, if Booker and Menendez’s fellow Democratic senators rebel against large-scale immigration changes.
Last week, Biden said that he is willing to “make significant compromises on the border” in order to push foreign aid through Congress, though with negotiations ongoing, it’s not clear yet exactly what those compromises might look like. But Menendez, for whom progressive immigration policy has long been a top issue, called Biden’s remarks “alarming.”
“I urge the President not to capitulate to Republicans who would sacrifice everything – including our reputation as the world’s defender of democracy and freedom – on the altar of demonizing and harming immigrants,” he said.