Democrats, Make a Border Deal to Save Ukraine
Tougher immigration rules in exchange for vital national-security funding is a compromise both parties should support.
They’re still coming.
Photographer: Eric Thayer/Bloomberg
In exchange for approving a supplemental national-security bill providing aid to Israel and Ukraine, Republican lawmakers are insisting on a far-reaching crackdown on the flow of migrants at the US’s southern border. Many Democrats continue to resist the GOP’s demands. They should reconsider.
The Republicans’ plan is not unreasonable. They want to increase detentions of unauthorized migrants, curb the use of “humanitarian parole” to release asylum seekers into the US, and require that migrants apply for asylum in countries they pass through before arriving at the border. They say these measures would deter people from giving themselves up at the border, requesting asylum and then being granted entry until their cases are processed, often years later — an influx that is overwhelming communities stretching from El Paso to New York City.