It appears the idea of a bipartisan deal that would advance major reform around immigration and the border is falling apart.
The outlet Punchbowl News reported this week on signs of such originating with both former President Donald Trump and Senate GOP leader Mitch McConnell, a Kentucky Republican. The deal actually happening could create the impression of a major border win while Trump is trying to — as always — use claimed problems there to fuel campaigning. “We don’t want to do anything to undermine him,” McConnell said, referring to Trump, per Punchbowl News’ reporting this week. Trump has also been proactive. He “called Speaker Mike Johnson and GOP senators repeatedly to pressure them to oppose” the deal, per the same outlet.
Rep. Jared Moskowitz (D-Fla.), a member of the House Oversight Committee, is drawing attention to blame now resting, he says, with Trump as some real-world problems at the border (like the distribution of the dangerous drug fentanyl) do continue. “Donald Trump just killed the Republican Bill to stop the border and fentanyl crisis so that he can use it as an election issue for the next 10 months. Donald Trump now owns the border crisis,” Moskowitz said on X (formerly Twitter).
Johnson, a Louisiana Republican comparatively new in the Speaker role, had already been opposing ideas on immigration tracing to the Senate, but the developments with McConnell are new.
Some on the Right had been seeking to tie potential aid for Ukraine amid its war with Russia to action on the border, meaning a further dismantling of the possibilities for the border deal could create serious uncertainties in deliberations around that high-stakes assistance, largely entailing deliveries of weapons to the Eastern European country. Meanwhile, Republicans in the House have demanded partisan politics-oriented moves like a revival of the so-called “remain in Mexico” policy that forced asylum-seekers out of the United States while their cases were processed.
