Ukraine would receive nearly 100 times more money than is dedicated to the U.S. border wall under the details of a new border bill unveiled by the Senate over the weekend.
The bill, which is being labeled as an “emergency national security bill,” would allocate $60.1 billion to Ukraine to help its war effort against Russia. Yet, when it comes to supporting efforts to protect America’s border, senators are only willing to allocate about $650 million.
According to Sen. James Lankford (R-OK), the bill’s allocations to U.S. security would “build and reinforce miles and miles of new border wall.”
However, reports say the $650 million might only be enough to add 50 or so miles to what currently exists of the border wall.
Sens. Kyrsten Sinema (I-AZ) and Chris Murphy (D-CT) negotiated the details of the bill with Lankford, hoping the fact that it was bipartisan in nature would convince other Congress members to back it.
But, the response from many Republicans thus far has been negative, to say the least.
The Senate Border Bill should be called the “Selling out of America Bill”.
It codifies illegal immigration and the invasion of our southern border. It does little to secure the border, while spending billions we don’t have in other countries.
— Kristi Noem (@KristiNoem) February 5, 2024
Even if the bill finds its way out of the Senate, it’s not likely to pass through Congress’ lower chamber.
House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) has already said that the bill would be “dead on arrival” based on the details of what it contains.
The Senate bill does include $20 billion in other investments for the U.S. border, including hiring new border patrol and asylum officials, expanding migrant detention facilities and also increasing screening procedures for illicit drugs.
The bill also would automatically close the U.S. southern border, based on certain triggers being tripped, but those numbers are also significantly higher than most people would like to see.
Border Patrol agents would need to record 8,500 migrant encounters in one day, or an average of 5,000 over a week, for those triggers to be tripped.
The Senate has also proposed providing Israel with $14.1 billion for security assistance, as well as $10 billion worth of civilian humanitarian aid throughout the world, including to Ukrainians and Palestinians who are suffering the negative effects of wars in their respective country.
