Biden urges Congress to pass immigration deal
- President Joe Biden called on Congress to pass the Senate's border deal
- The package includes immigration reform and aid for Ukraine and Israel
- Biden accused Trump of trying to discourage votes in support of the deal
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(NewsNation) — President Joe Biden on Tuesday urged Congress to pass immigration reforms laid out in the Emergency National Security Supplemental Appropriations Act and said former President Donald Trump is to blame if the bill fails.
The deal would streamline the adjudication of asylum claims and allow the president to shut down the border if daily crossings average more than 4,000, NewsNation partner The Hill reported.
Biden on Tuesday called the deal the “toughest and fairest law” that has “ever been proposed relative to the border.”
The package calls for 100 additional immigration judges, 4,300 new asylum officers and added border staff. The additional staffing would reduce the asylum process to about six months, compared to current practices, which can take several years, Biden said.
“The bottom line is this bipartisan bill is a win for America because it makes important fixes to our broken immigration system,” he said.
Other measures are still needed to address paths to documentation for immigrants who are already in the United States and citizenship for young people who arrived in the U.S. as children, Biden said.
The package also calls for $60 billion in wartime aid for Ukraine, as well as tens of billions of dollars more for Israel, other U.S. allies in Asia, the U.S. immigration system and humanitarian aid for civilians in Gaza and Ukraine, the Associated Press reported.
Both Republicans and Democrats have criticized the bill.
Republican leaders such as House Speaker Mike Johnson, Majority Leader Steve Scalise, New York Rep. Elise Stefanik and Rep. Tom Emmer of Minnesota said they oppose the legislation because “it fails in every policy area needed to secure our border and would actually incentivize more illegal immigration.”
On Tuesday, Biden accused Trump of spending the past 24 hours “desperately trying to stop this bill.”
“If the bill fails, I want to be absolutely clear about this: The American people are going to know why it failed,” Biden said.
NewsNation reporter Joe Khalil contributed to this report.