2024-02-07 23:53:00
The United States Senate.
This Wednesday, the United States Senate buried the bipartisan immigration agreement, which was under fire from the hardline of the Republicans and especially from former President Donald Trump.
It took months for a group of Democrats and Republicans to negotiate this bill with President Joe Biden’s administration, but the legislative package, which includes funds for Ukraine and Israel, was reduced to nothing in a matter of minutes during a procedural vote in the upper house of Congress.
Thus, the majority of Republicans voted against it, even those who initially supported it, reported the AFP news agency.
However, It is likely that the Senate will try its luck again with this bill, amputated from immigration reform.
Although, there are no guarantees that this alternative will prosper in Congress, one of the most dysfunctional in recent times.
The text arrived very weakened after Trump, the Republicans’ big favorite for the presidential nomination for the November elections, sentenced him to death.
“Only an idiot, or a radical left-wing Democrat, would vote for this horrible border bill”he wrote on his social network, Truth Social.
The Senate, with a Democratic majority, had presented on Sunday the supplemental national security bill of 118 billion dollars, which includes 60 billion dollars in additional aid for Ukraine, $14 billion for Israel and about $20 billion for border security, among other priorities.
Regarding this last point, the legislative package allowed restricting the flow of migrants at the border and favored accelerated expulsions, in addition to tightening the standard of so-called credible fear interviews to request asylum.
The president of the House of Representatives – which, however, has a Republican predominance -, Mike Johnsonrejected that proposal, and warned that she would be “dead on arrival” to that body.
Thus, this Wednesday’s vote was already doomed to failure, but the Democratic majority leader of the Senate, Chuck Schumerinsisted on carrying it out so that the Republicans’ opposition to the text could be recorded.
Conservatives tried to pass aid to Israel separately, separating it from the package that includes funding for Ukraine and border security, but to no avail.
“What happened here was a disaster”Johnson told reporters.
“The nation is divided (…) the chasm between the two parties right now is bigger than ever”he added.
After the vote in the Senate, it is most likely that the immigration issue will be left aside in Congress, although it will continue to be very present during the presidential campaign.
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