After weeks of negotiations, the United States Senate published a bipartisan military and border aid bill which aims to deter immigrants from crossing the border between the United States and Mexico, while allocating a portion of the budget to military aid to allied countries.
The proposal would provide $60 billion in military aid to Ukraine14 billion dollars to Israel4.8 billion to Taiwan, and 20 billion dollars for border security.
The bill must be approved by 60 votes in the Senate, but has very little chance of passing in the House of Representatives. This Monday, the Republican leadership of that precinct rejected the project for not being tough enough and warned that it is a “waste of time,” since the agreement “will die when it reaches the House.”
The first procedural vote on the legislation will be held on Wednesday of this week.
What is the bipartisan initiative that will be voted on this week in the US about?
The plan ends the practice known as “stop and release,” under which undocumented migrants who arrive at the border and present themselves to authorities asking for asylum are released pending a hearing before an immigration judge. .
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) will be authorized to suspend the entry of migrants at the border when daily number of arrests exceeds the average of 4 thousand in a week.
But if the figure exceeds the daily average of 5 thousand revenues for a week or threshold of 8,500 in one day, DHS must apply the expulsion of migrants.
This permission for the federal government to expel migrants will be limited to 270 days During the first year of the plan’s validity, 225 days in the second yearand 180 days in the third.
Once the average illegal income decreases by 75 percent, DHS will have two weeks to suspend the use of that emergency authorization.
The plan also allocates $650 million to build or improve physical barriers at the border, substantially increases capacity to house detained migrants, and allocates $4 billion to hire more staff dedicated to processing asylum claims. .
It also does more strict criteria for asylum approval for migrants who claim they are fleeing persecution and threats due to race, religion, political affiliation, or because they are members of a discriminated group.
Under the proposal, migrants will have to demonstrate during the initial interview that they have a reasonable chance of being granted asylum. Critics of the plan argue that this could make it more difficult for applicants to pass the exam.
Migrants who have a criminal record, who have settled in another country, or who would feel safe if they had settled in another part of their country of origin, will not be able to apply for asylum in the United States.
The plan expedites the processing of asylum requests, which now takes years, and limits it to six months.
In the case of migrants who are detained after having crossed the border at places other than the ports of entry, they will be processed expeditiously within 10 to 15 daysand those seeking asylum will be detained pending an initial hearing.
In the case of migrants who are approved at the initial hearing, they will be temporarily granted a work permit and will remain in a supervision program until their asylum request is resolved in a 90 day period.
The plan limits the Government’s authority in granting temporary humanitarian immigration protections (parole in English). President Biden has used this authority to benefit Ukrainians, Afghans, Cubans, Venezuelans, and Haitians.
On the other hand, it allocates some 1.4 billion dollars for shelters and other programs in cities and states that have received migrants in large numbersand authorizes 50,000 visas for employment- and family-related immigration in each of the next five years.
