{"id":14098,"date":"2024-01-25T19:53:05","date_gmt":"2024-01-25T19:53:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/latinosreadytovote.org\/?p=14098"},"modified":"2024-01-25T19:53:05","modified_gmt":"2024-01-25T19:53:05","slug":"why-trump-fears-a-biden-gop-immigration-deal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/latinosreadytovote.org\/?p=14098","title":{"rendered":"Why Trump fears a Biden-GOP immigration deal"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\u201cHe doesn\u2019t want us to solve the border problem because he wants to blame Biden for it.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Andrew Prokop<\/a><\/em>, Vox<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n

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For years, Republicans have professed fury over a crisis at the US-Mexico border. For months, many in the GOP have insisted they could only support further aid to Ukraine if it was paired with tougher border security measures to address that crisis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So President Joe Biden<\/a> accepted their conditions, giving up Democrats\u2019 longtime demands on immigration and conceding much of what the right wanted \u2014 and as recently as Monday<\/a>, a bipartisan deal seemed near.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But now, Republicans may be backing out. Not because of the substance of the deal, but because it might hurt Donald Trump<\/a>\u2019s chances of retaking the White House.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That\u2019s what Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell told Republican senators in a closed-door meeting, according to Jake Sherman of Punchbowl News<\/a>, saying \u201cthe politics\u201d had put them \u201cin a quandary.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhen we started this, the border united us and Ukraine divided us,\u201d McConnell said, per Sherman. But, he went on, \u201cThe politics on this have changed.\u201d The issue is that \u201cthe nominee\u201d \u2014 Trump \u2014 wants to campaign on immigration. \u201cWe don\u2019t want to do anything to undermine him.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some pro-deal senators pushed back<\/a> on how these remarks were reported Thursday, claiming McConnell wasn\u2019t affirmatively declaring the talks dead or separating the two issues. Sen. Mitt Romney (R-UT) said instead<\/a> that McConnell was \u201cambiguous\u201d about a path forward.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But it\u2019s clear what McConnell was alluding to: that Trump wants there to be chaos at the border while Biden is president, because he thinks such chaos will help defeat the incumbent. Trump does not want congressional Republicans making a deal with Biden to address the actual substantive problem because that would make Biden look good.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Romney confirmed that interpretation. \u201cThe border is a very important issue for Donald Trump,\u201d he told reporters<\/a> Thursday. \u201cAnd the fact that he would communicate to Republican senators and congresspeople that he doesn\u2019t want us to solve the border problem because he wants to blame Biden for it is really appalling.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If Republicans do kill the deal, it would make all their protestations about how much they supposedly care about this issue look hollow, and the GOP would come off looking tremendously cynical. They claim to believe the migrant surge of the past few years is destroying the country, but they\u2019d be happy to let it continue unaddressed for another year if it means they win an election.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why Republicans thought a difficult immigration deal was the key to passing Ukraine aid<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The reason the immigration talks got as far as they did was because of an entirely different issue: Ukraine aid.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The national security<\/a> establishment in both parties strongly supports further aid to Ukraine, believing that without it, the country\u2019s resistance to Russia<\/a>\u2019s invasion might collapse. Many GOP senators, including McConnell, share that view, as did former speaker Kevin McCarthy and some House Republicans. But the MAGA right is strongly against further Ukraine aid. And with Republicans in control of the House, they\u2019ve exerted pressure on their chamber\u2019s leaders not to bring a \u201cclean\u201d Ukraine bill to a vote.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, last year, various Republicans gradually glommed on to the idea of linking Ukraine aid to something they thought Trump supporters (and really all Republicans) wanted: border security.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To McConnell and the faction of Republicans truly trying to pass Ukraine aid, the theory was that forcing Biden into major border security concessions would be a \u201cwin\u201d for the right and help make the bill more palatable for Republicans fearing backlash from the base (like new speaker Mike Johnson).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

GOP leaders<\/a> argued to their senators that this was the best chance they\u2019d ever have to get Democrats to accept tough border measures \u2014 because, they said, Democrats would surely never agree to a deal with President Trump if he wins. And Republican senators, even anti-MAGA and pro-Ukraine ones like Mitt Romney, presented a united front in negotiations<\/a>, saying Ukraine aid simply couldn\u2019t pass unless Biden played ball on immigration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Biden did play ball. And this was a big deal. The longtime reason for congressional gridlock on immigration was that Democrats insisted tougher border measures be paired with an agreement to legalize the status of unauthorized immigrants already living here. But in these talks, Democrats dropped that demand. The bill would be full of restrictionist measures and have nothing on legalization.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As I wrote in December<\/a>, Biden made this shift in part to try to get the Ukraine aid and in part because he and other Democrats had concluded that the border status quo was unacceptable \u2014 that it was both a substantive mess and a political liability for their party.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The talks have been lengthy and difficult, and have at times provoked outrage from both the left<\/a> and the right<\/a>. But NBC News reported<\/a>, citing a source, that as recently as Monday the major policy sticking points had been \u201clargely resolved,\u201d suggesting a deal could be finalized relatively soon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The prospects for the Senate deal have always been questionable in the House. Johnson has spoken of<\/a> linking Ukraine aid to border security in a way that has surface similarities to Senate Republicans\u2019 strategy. But he\u2019s also said<\/a> he\u2019d demand far more than it seemed plausible for Republicans to get from Biden, and he hasn\u2019t sounded thrilled with the emerging Senate framework.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In his few months since becoming speaker, Johnson has floundered about<\/a> trying to please the right wing in the House. But now he has another problem: Trump.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Last week, Johnson appeared on Fox News<\/a>, and host Laura Ingraham opened her interview by saying, \u201cThe president [Trump] actually just got off the phone with me right before the show, and he said he has spoken to you about this deal, and that he is against it, and he urged you to be against this deal.\u201d She added, \u201cPresident Trump was extremely adamant about that.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trump has publicly condemned the potential deal, writing last week on Truth Social<\/a>, \u201cI do not think we should do a Border Deal, at all, unless we get EVERYTHING needed to shut down the INVASION of Millions & Millions of people, many from parts unknown, into our once great, but soon to be great again, Country!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When Republicans in the House and Senate have publicly criticized the deal, they have tended to say it simply wouldn\u2019t be tough enough. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) called it a \u201cstinking pile-of-crap bill<\/a>\u201d and claimed it wouldn\u2019t actually solve the border crisis. And it is unclear how much it would change the fundamental situation, since border arrivals are driven to a significant extent by factors outside of the US\u2019s control.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But McConnell\u2019s comments on \u201cthe politics\u201d seem to reveal what he thinks is driving Trump\u2019s recalcitrance. Indeed, Trump\u2019s biggest fear might be that the bill will<\/em> work, because then he\u2019ll have a harder time attacking Biden. And in truth, he wouldn\u2019t be wrong in that political analysis. A bipartisan border security deal would indeed make Biden look good \u2014 that\u2019s one reason he\u2019s been so eager for that deal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Such blatant hackery, though, reveals the selfishness that\u2019s always been core to who Trump is \u2014 he\u2019s happy to throw the country under the bus for his own personal gain, as most famously demonstrated in his attempt to shred democracy rather than admit defeat in the 2020 election<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe reality is that we have a crisis at the border,\u201d Romney told CNN<\/a> Thursday. And Trump, he said, was telling Republicans not to do anything about it, saying instead, \u201cHey, save that problem. Don\u2019t solve it. Let me take credit for solving it later.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

Andrew Prokop<\/a> is a senior politics correspondent at Vox, covering the White House, elections, and political scandals and investigations.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“He doesn’t want us to solve the border problem because he wants to blame Biden for it.” By Andrew Prokop, Vox For years, Republicans have professed fury over a crisis at the US-Mexico border. For […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":14100,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[62,69],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-14098","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-slider","8":"category-immigration"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/latinosreadytovote.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14098","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/latinosreadytovote.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/latinosreadytovote.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/latinosreadytovote.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/latinosreadytovote.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=14098"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/latinosreadytovote.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14098\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14101,"href":"https:\/\/latinosreadytovote.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14098\/revisions\/14101"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/latinosreadytovote.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/14100"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/latinosreadytovote.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14098"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/latinosreadytovote.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14098"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/latinosreadytovote.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14098"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}