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Biden considers new border and asylum restrictions as he tries to reach Senate deal for Ukraine aid

Published:Wednesday | December 13, 2023 | 3:48 PM
Asylum-seekers walk to a US Border Patrol van after crossing the nearby border with Mexico, Tuesday, September 26, 2023, near Jacumba Hot Springs, California. Migrants continue to arrive at desert campsites along California's border with Mexico, as they await processing. Congress is discussing changes to the immigration system in exchange for providing money to Ukraine in its fight against Russia and Israel for the war with Hamas. (AP Photo/Denis Poroy, File)

WASHINGTON (AP) — Top Biden administration officials were labouring on Wednesday to try to reach a last-minute deal for wartime aid for Ukraine by agreeing to Senate Republican demands to bolster United States -Mexico border policies to cut crossings.

Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas was expected to resume talks with Senate negotiators even as advocates for immigrants and members of President Joe Biden's own Democratic Party fretted about the policies under discussion.

Some were planning to protest at the Capitol, warning of a return to Trump-like restrictions.

Congress is scheduled to leave Washington on Thursday, leaving little time to reach an agreement on Biden's $110 billion request for Ukraine, Israel, and other national security needs.

But White House officials and key Senate negotiators appeared to be narrowing on a list of priorities to tighten the US-Mexico border and remove some recent migrant arrivals already in the US, raising hopes that a framework could be within reach.

“This is difficult, very difficult,” Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, said in a speech on the Senate floor on Wednesday.

“But we're sent here to do difficult things.”

Among the proposals being seriously discussed, according to several people familiar with the private talks, are plans to allow Homeland Security officials to stop migrants from applying for asylum at the US southern border if the number of total crossings exceeds the daily capacity of roughly 5,000. Some one-day totals this year have exceeded 10,000.

Also under discussion are proposals to detain people claiming asylum at the border, including families with children, potentially with electronic monitoring systems.

Negotiators are also eyeing ways to allow authorities to quickly remove migrants who have been in the United States for less than two years, even if they are far from the border.

But those removals would only extend to people who either have not claimed asylum or were not approved to enter the asylum system, according to one of the people briefed on the negotiations.

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