Washington DC – The White House has increased pressure on members of the US Congress as it seeks a deal that would allow aid to Ukraine to be approved in exchange for possible asylum restrictions.
Ornela Medom, a 28-year-old who fled war-torn Cameroon, is among those currently seeking asylum in the United States. At a “Save Asylum” rally outside the Capitol, she told Al Jazeera that she is horrified by what a new immigration deal could bring.
“I'm very sad and very scared,” Medom said Thursday, just a day after Republican and Democratic senators said a vote on a deal could be imminent.
Also on Wednesday, Speaker Mike Johnson suggested that House Republicans could take an even tougher line on access to the U.S.-Mexico border.
“Our lives depend on these secret negotiations that are ongoing,” said Medom, who arrived in the United States across the southern border in April. “I beg you to think of us.”
A group of progressive and Hispanic lawmakers also attended Thursday's news conference, appealing to Democrats not to accept major changes to U.S. border law as part of any deal.
For months, the White House has sought to continue helping Ukraine, pushing a $110 billion package that would also include military funding for Israel and Taiwan, as well as other security spending.
But Republicans have based the additional aid to Ukraine on changes to stem the flow of migrants and asylum seekers at the southern border. Democratic leaders such as President Joe Biden and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer have expressed their willingness to reach an agreement.
Biden “wants to make really significant changes at the border,” Schumer said Wednesday.
However, asylum rights advocates have described a potential deal as “extortion” and “hostage-taking.”
“Republicans are holding foreign aid hostage to get extreme immigration measures that will not solve the problem,” Rep. Nanette Díaz Barragán, a Democrat and chair of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, told reporters Thursday.
The terms of the agreement have not yet been made public. But Díaz Barragán said they are expected to include “expanded enforcement of the law, deportations, changes to make it more difficult to obtain asylum and possibly limits on the president's parole authority.”
“He is destroying the asylum and will terrorize our communities.”
Negotiations in progress
On Wednesday, Biden summoned a group of Democratic and Republican members of Congress to the White House in hopes of bringing negotiations closer to a conclusion. He told those gathered they needed to “send a strong signal of America's resolve” on Ukraine, the White House said in a statement.
“It was clear: Congress' continued inaction endangers the national security of the United States, the NATO alliance, and the rest of the free world,” the statement said.
Schumer told reporters afterward: “I'm more optimistic than ever that we will reach an agreement.”
Referring to the anticipated deal, Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell said he was “anticipating that we will have it before us next week.”
Meanwhile, President Johnson stressed that House Republicans, who have a majority in the lower chamber, would not support any deal unless it included “significant” new border restrictions.
He pointed to a hardline immigration bill passed by the House in May, which included a ban on seeking asylum for irregular border crossers and the resumption of a policy that required asylum seekers to wait in Mexico until Your requests will be processed.
“I told the president what I had been saying for many months, and that is that we need to make changes at the border, substantial policy changes,” Johnson told reporters. “We must insist – we must insist – that the border is the top priority.”
Speaking Thursday, Democratic Rep. Pramila Jayapal, chairwoman of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, said the entire premise of the deal should be rejected. She warned that bipartisan efforts could herald historically “cruel, unworkable and permanent” immigration policy changes.
“It is imperative that my colleagues in the Senate and the White House understand that what is on the table are policies so extreme that, if enacted, they would be the most exclusionary and restrictive immigration legislation since the racial quota laws of the 1920s.” , literally turning back. the clock 100 years,” he said, referencing laws that had established immigration quotas based on nationality, excluding some altogether.
'What will Republicans ask for next time?'
Immigration legislation is rarely passed at the federal level in the United States, where immigration and asylum issues remain a third political issue.
Instead, most recent immigration policy has been established by presidential administrations through executive actions and rules. These are more vulnerable to judicial challenges than measures approved as law.
That puts a lot at stake in an agreement in Congress. US media have reported that Senate and White House negotiators have broadly agreed in closed-door meetings on several policies reminiscent of those enacted during former President Donald Trump's administration.
These include raising eligibility standards for people seeking asylum after crossing into the United States irregularly, expanding the categories of arrivals who can be detained and monitored, and facilitating the expulsion of migrants and asylum seekers.
The Associated Press also reported that a proposal under discussion would have simplified the deportation process for immigrants nationwide who have been in the United States for less than two years. However, it is unclear whether that measure is still on the table.
Meanwhile, a key sticking point has been attempts to limit the White House's ability to issue humanitarian permits, which can be used to grant access to migrants in an emergency. That power has been a cornerstone of the Biden administration's most recent border strategy, which limits the ability to seek asylum at the southern border while expanding some legal avenues.
“Parole has a very long and bipartisan history of being used to provide security for Vietnamese allies who worked with the US government, for Soviet Jewish refugees, for Cambodians who fled the Khmer Rouge, for political prisoners Cubans, to Haitians after the devastating 2010 earthquake, to our Afghan allies, to Ukrainians fleeing the Russian invasion and more,” Jayapal said.
“What are we going to allow ourselves to be bullied next?” she asked. “What will Republicans ask for the next time we need more funds for Ukraine or some other emergency?”
What comes next?
Critics say foreign aid is not the only consideration for lawmakers considering the deal.
Border crossings have periodically reached record levels since Biden took office. The United States Customs and Border Protection agency, for example, recorded a record 2,475,669 irregular “encounters” in fiscal year 2023.
Republicans have seized on those numbers to criticize the Biden administration. But pressure is also coming from within the Democratic Party: Politicians such as New York City Mayor Eric Adams have criticized Biden for not doing more to address irregular immigration.
This comes as recent polls show that support for Democrats' handling of immigration has plummeted.
A CBS News poll released in early January found that Biden's approval rating on the issue had hit an all-time low. Only 21 percent of survey participants said Biden was “handling things well.”
“Let's be frank: The only reason we're even considering these negotiations is because there are too many Democratic politicians who have seen the poll numbers,” Ro Khanna, a Democratic representative, said at Thursday's news conference.
He called the deal a “colossal mistake” that would “further alienate the base of this party and compromise the soul of this party.”
For asylum seeker Medom, what is at stake goes far beyond the upcoming elections.
She recounted how Cameroonian authorities detained her, beat her and sexually assaulted her, which ultimately motivated her to flee. It was a nearly impossible choice that meant leaving her five-year-old daughter with her family.
“My life and the lives of thousands of asylum seekers are in your hands,” he said in a message to US lawmakers. “The asylum is a tradition. Asylum is a value. Asylum is a right.”
