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In a brief burst of bipartisanship last weekend, the US House of Representatives approved long-stalled $60 billion in aid to Ukraine that will be a vital boost for kyiv. But the bipartisan spirit did not last long enough to pass another measure, on strengthening U.S. border security, which Republicans had long linked to aid for Ukraine. The posturing of hardline Republican members ruined the chances of a bill that largely mirrored a tough measure that House Republicans supported last year. However, the situation on the southern border is desperate.
Like a Financial Times series has highlighted, political and economic problems in Latin America are causing unprecedented mass migration. The number of people detained at the US southwest border hit a record high of nearly 2.5 million last year. Border agents and facilities are overwhelmed; Many US states are struggling to cope with the inflows. Immigration has become a central issue in the November presidential elections. If Congress cannot act, held hostage by hardline Republicans over the issue, President Joe Biden may have to do so.
The pity is that congressional leaders He spent months negotiating a bipartisan border bill that represented the most extensive attempt at immigration reform in more than a decade. It included a trigger mechanism that allowed the border to be closed when numbers peaked, and provided $20 billion in funding to increase capacity and employ thousands more border protection agents and asylum officers. Most Senate Republicans, plus some Democrats, rejected the package in February after Donald Trump signaled that he did not want to give Biden a pre-election “gift.”
At least some of the border problems are Biden’s own fault. Under pressure from the progressive wing of his party, he repealed some of the most drastic anti-immigration measures of the Trump presidency. As the number of immigrants has increased, the White House response has been laborious and inconsistent, in part out of fear of taking steps that would upset the Democratic left. But the president inherited a badly broken system, facing unprecedented problems with separated families and overcrowded asylum centers.
The increase in the number of immigrants also reflects not only the growing misery in some parts of Latin America but also the appeal of the American economic boom under the Biden administration. In fact, legal migration has contributed to buoyant growth. If the United States wants to control inflation while growing strongly and fill skills gaps, the workforce must continue to expand. But immigrants must enter in a controlled manner through the front door, rather than the back.
Biden on Wednesday lamented the absence of border security in the weekend package, noting that this year he had “proposed, negotiated and agreed to the strongest border security bill that has ever existed in this country. . . seen.” He insisted that he was “determined to do it” and would do it again. If Congress does not act, the president must do everything he can, but not the draconian blockade that Trump has promised if he wins again. This month, Biden hinted that he was considering possible executive action to sharply limit the number of asylum seekers who can cross the border.
He has powers to do so without congressional approval, according to the same legal article that Trump used for some of his measures. However, executive orders cannot appropriate billions of dollars to reinforce the border and hire more personnel than the Congress bill.
That’s why the president should take every opportunity to remind voters who is responsible for the failure to adopt a more comprehensive solution: the many Republicans who seem more determined to ensure Trump’s reelection than to govern in their best interests. of Americans.