Check the sky tonight after dark. You just might see a blue moon arcing across the sky.
That rarity could be in honor of another once-in-lifetime event: Democrats supporting legislation that would address the problem of our porous border.
You might look in awe at such a rare cosmic phenomenon. The blue moon, I mean. But Democrats supporting the idea that there may even be a teensy, tiny problem with keeping unwanted people like terrorists and criminals out of the country is almost as rare.
Senate Democrats and Republicans are working on a border security plan that might get overwhelming Democratic support and enough backing from Republicans to pass. But it's going to depend on congressional support for aid to Ukraine being attached to the bill, and that's an iffy proposition.
Most of the GOP leadership supports aid to Ukraine but the rank and file is less convinced. But they might swallow hard and vote for it if there's a credible border security package that goes with it.
“It’s hard to do something that Congress hasn’t done in 40 years — come to a bipartisan agreement on border security,” Connecticut Sen. Chris Murphy said. “I still think it’s possible, but I wish we weren’t in this position, which is we’re holding the fate of the world hostage to a domestic political issue.”
Murphy is ramrodding the treacherous negotiations on the border. But the real trick is going to be getting enough Republicans to support aid for Ukraine in the House.
There was a gathering this past weekend at the Halifax International Security Forum in Nova Scotia. Many of the foreign policy experts and government officials in attendance were taken aback at the prospect that the United States may drop its commitment to Ukraine. If that were to happen, why should other nations support Ukraine, or countries like Taiwan and Israel?
“Each of the groups that we’ve talked to, we’ve said this is going to determine whether or not there’s funding for Ukraine, Israel, and Taiwan,” Sen. Mike Rounds (R-S.D.) told Punchbowl News regarding the grand bargain on the border that is still being negotiated. “Because how do you go back home and say you’re justifying their defense but you’re not protecting our own southern border? Without the border being addressed appropriately, nothing is going to move.”
And there you have it. Aid to Ukraine is more popular with Democrats while border security is more popular with Republicans.
Senate Democrats who attended the conference said they are ready to deal on border security and are even willing to make significant changes to American asylum policy, which Republicans have demanded. Foreign officials were “surprised to hear that border security — not just funding for the border, but a change in our asylum policy — was a demand” of Senate Republicans, Senator Coons said.
One of the Senate’s most liberal members, Senator Welch, said he is prepared to advance a more restrictive immigration scheme to provide aid for Ukraine. “We Democrats have to do something about the border. I think it’s a real issue,” Mr. Welch said. “The situation at the border is a lot different than it was 10 or 15 years ago. And maintaining the same kind of policy is not a sustainable position, in my view.
The biggest obstacle is House Republicans who refuse to deal on border security. They passed a bill in May that would bolster border security and impose harsh restrictions on asylum seekers. It would also end the policy of "catch and release" and resume construction of the border wall.
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Rep. Chip Roy laid it out in black and white for senators.
“I’ve been having conversations with a number of different senators,” Roy said. “Our position is clear: it’s HR2. … Here’s the bottom line — they’re either going to stuff us on the ability to move any kind of border security because they refuse to move HR2, or they’re never getting Ukraine. If they ever want to have a thought of having Ukraine, then you better sit down and do the border. That’s it. That’s the end of the conservation.”
“We don’t need a carving off of HR2. Otherwise, just call Zelensky and say, ‘I’m sorry,’” the congressman said.
With that kind of attitude, nothing will get done. And if that's what Roy and other hardline Republicans want, that's what they'll get.
