WASHINGTON, Feb 5, 2024 (BSS/AFP) - US senators on Sunday released the text
of a much-anticipated deal that would unlock billions in new aid for Ukraine
and Israel while tightening US border laws, but the top House Republican
quickly vowed to shoot it down.

The national security supplemental provides for $118.3 billion in total
funding, including $60 billion to support war-torn Ukraine, matching the
White House's request, and $14.1 billion in security assistance to Israel,
according to a summary released by Senate Appropriations Committee chair
Patty Murray.

The legislation also includes $20.2 billion for US border security and a
myriad of immigration policy changes agreed to by Democratic and Republican
negotiators.

Most significantly, it would give President Joe Biden the power to reject
asylum seekers if illegal border crossings reached over 5,000 per week -- a
figure breached multiple times in recent months.

"Biden would immediately use this authority -- which would mean people coming
across the border are generally ineligible for asylum -- if crossings were at
current levels," a White House official told reporters late Sunday.

It is not clear that the 370-page bill has the 60 backers it will need to
advance from the first procedural vote in the 100-seat, Democratic-controlled
Senate, expected on Wednesday at the latest.

Its prospects, or lack thereof, are clearer in the Republican-controlled
House, with Speaker Mike Johnson quickly saying it would be "dead on arrival"
in its current form.

Senators have been negotiating for months on the deal to combat illegal
immigration, with Republicans insisting on bolstered border security in
return for approving Biden's funding request for Kyiv.

Biden said in a statement he strongly supports the deal, which would help
Ukraine "defend itself against Russia's aggression" and "includes the
toughest and fairest set of border reforms in decades."

He urged Republicans -- who have been pressured by White House hopeful Donald
Trump to oppose the deal -- to get behind the bipartisan package.

"If you believe, as I do, that we must secure the border now, doing nothing
is not an option," he said.

- 'Detain and deport' -

Biden ran on restoring "humanity" to immigration -- ending controversial
Trump-era policies that led to families being separated at the US-Mexico
border.

But Republicans dismiss his term as a failure, pointing to statistics showing
border agents picking up illegal migrants a record 302,000 times in December.

"This bill is even worse than we expected, and won't come close to ending the
border catastrophe the President has created," Johnson said Sunday on X,
formerly Twitter.

For months, polling has shown Americans see the migrant crisis among their
top concerns -- and mostly blame Democrats for the surge.

The immigration reform that ended up in the bill were described by both sides
as constituting the strictest border policy changes in recent memory.

"This is a once-in-a-generation opportunity to close our open border and give
future administrations the effective tools they need to stop the border chaos
and protect our nation," Senator James Lankford of Oklahoma, the lead
Republican negotiator, said in a statement.

He said the bill would put "a huge number of new enforcement tools in the
hands of a future administration" and change US policy from "catch and
release," which allows undocumented migrants to remain at liberty as they
await court appearances, to "detain and deport."

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer called the legislation "a monumental
step," and cautioned Republicans against the knee-jerk reaction of trying to
sink it simply because Trump opposes it.

"Senators must shut out the noise from those who want this agreement to fail
for their own political agendas," Schumer said.

Trump -- who is close to securing the Republican presidential nomination and
is desperate to prevent Biden scoring a legislative win -- has spoken out
loudly against the bill.

"As the leader of our party, there is zero chance I will support this
horrible open borders betrayal of America," Trump, said in a recent speech in
Las Vegas.

If the deal falls short in either chamber Democrats will argue that the
Republicans, having spent two years assailing Biden over the surge in migrant
crossings, have dropped a major priority simply to pander to Trump's White
House ambitions.