Senate negotiations on a border and immigration deal are getting bogged down over details, making it highly unlikely there’s an agreement this week.
Despite optimistic statements in recent days from all three Senate negotiators, a finalized agreement is bedeviling Sens. James Lankford (R-Okla.), Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) and Kyrsten Sinema (I-Ariz.). Though none of them will talk policy specifics, GOP senators say efforts to restrict the president’s parole authority are at an impasse, as Democrats push back on the issue.
“There’s too many unanswered issues that are still there. There’s too many unresolved parts. But I would say as recently as yesterday, I was thinking I think we’re close. But in all of our meetings last night and today, we’re not,” Lankford told reporters after briefing GOP leaders. “I’m doubtful about later on this week … I think it’s more likely the next.”
Murphy said senators and the Biden administration are “trying to get it as soon as possible but there frustratingly remain some open issues.” And as Republicans condition their votes for more Ukraine aid on new border and immigration restrictions, the rest of the supplemental spending bill may have to wait too.
The three senators have spent months urgently trying to finalize a bipartisan agreement that would unlock that money and make new border and immigration restrictions to deal with a surge of migrants into the United States. But Congress has a history of failures on addressing immigration, and those challenges are now falling to three senators under a compressed timeline with huge stakes for U.S. foreign policy.
Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), who is close to the negotiators, said that parole authority is the biggest unresolved issue in the talks. Lankford said that “every administration needs the ability to have humanitarian parole, that’s why that’s why it exists. But you have to be able to stop the abuse.”
Asked about why parole is such a challenging issue, Murphy bluntly said that “many of us warned that it’s not a good idea to condition the salvation of Ukraine and Europe on our ability to craft a comprehensive immigration reform. Period.”
Senate Judiciary Chairman Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) and Sen. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii) both said they have reservations about restricting presidential parole, though they are open to the discussion. Schatz quipped that if the “bill is done right, everyone is going to hate it.”
Progressives and conservatives alike are expected to oppose any agreement on immigration and border security, with the left arguing it goes too far and the right arguing it doesn’t go far enough.
Negotiators and Senate leaders touted progress over the holiday break. It’s unclear, however, when a bill would move through the Senate even if there is a deal — and still more questions remain about whether the House GOP majority would even take it up.
The laborious negotiations could soon find themselves overrun by the imperative to stop a government shutdown, with a Jan. 19 date bearing down on Capitol Hill. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer met with Minority Leader Mitch McConnell about the issues confronting Congress on Monday afternoon.
Still, there’s a flurry of activity around the unresolved discussions this week. Democrats are hoping to get a briefing from Murphy on Tuesday, while Senate Republicans are set for a GOP conference meeting about the border and immigration on Wednesday.
A number of senators say they’re still largely in the dark about what exactly has been negotiated. Durbin said Monday he hadn’t gotten any substantive updates recently, noting that he spoke to Schumer about it a few days ago but that the majority leader “didn’t have much to tell me.” Sen. Peter Welch (D-Vt.) said while there haven’t been many incremental updates, there’s an “appreciation for the fact that you can’t start having piecemeal discussions about this, because it is so delicate.”
Senate Republican leadership is bracing for a slog, too. Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.) told reporters that negotiators are getting talks “reduced to text,” but that “getting something ready for action on the floor is going to take a while.”
