https://apnews.com/article/congress-border-security-ukraine-a39e188fa2c6a563203d2c69eaabdc6d
“In a dramatic turnaround, Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell recommended to GOP senators in a closed-door meeting that they vote against the first procedural vote Wednesday, according to two people familiar with the meeting who were not authorized to talk publicly about it and spoke anonymously.”
Back in February, there was a chance the Republicans could have added additional funding to border patrol and ICE to the bill sending military aid to Ukraine and Gaza, and yes, Mitch McConnell decided not to push it forward.
This would have given the Republicans in the House what they are calling for and enabled swift passage of the House, and it was not Democrats who blocked it, but the Senate minority leader.
Giving more support to agents to process migrants trying to go to the United States would make Biden look good, sending aid to Ukraine would hurt Putin, and both of these hurt the Republican Party.
The Republican border plan is basically to build more walls, which is ineffective, and send more people back to their homes, which is inhumane.
This is designed ultimately to make Biden look like a weak president, as Biden has refused to send the $4.4 billion in aid he can already send Ukraine, but Biden is worried sending that would prevent the further $60 billion in the bill stalled in Congress.
So here we have it. Republicans have given Putin a massive gift by refusing to give Ukraine enough aid that could end the war. They claim they want border security added to the bill, but when they had an opportunity to buff up customs and border enforcement, Mitch McConnell decided not to.
Biden could have done more when he had a trifecta in 2022 when the war began. So far, the United States has sent over $40 billion in aid to Ukraine, and this was enough to push Russia out of Northern Ukraine, but they need more aid to push Russia out of Eastern Ukraine. Military targets in Russian territory need to be allowed to be targeted with American-supplied arms when that is deemed most efficient by the Ukrainian military.
But then we need to ask, what is the Republican border policy they want to pass so badly?
First and foremost, according to Reuters, it would “set tight limits on asylum seekers and require them to apply for U.S. protection outside the country.”
That was the law in 1939 when Republicans turned away thousands of Jewish refugees in 1939.
Article 31 Section 1 of the Convention clearly states
The Contracting States shall not impose penalties, on account of their illegal entry or presence, on refugees who, coming directly from a territory where their life or freedom was threatened in the sense of article 1, enter or are present in their territory without authorization, provided they present themselves without delay to the authorities and show good cause for their illegal entry or presence.
It couldn’t be much clearer than that.
Article 1 Section 1 of the Protocol clearly states:
The States Parties to the present Protocol undertake to apply articles 2 to 34 inclusive of the Convention to refugees as hereinafter defined.
It couldn’t be much clearer than that.
This means the Republican border plan of not granting asylum at the border is a violation of the Protocol, which we are a party to. It is illegal.
The irony is that part of the Republican demands to vote for military aid to Ukraine is to force refugees to apply for asylum outside of the United States, which makes it nearly impossible to apply for refugee status. The Ukraine war is a major cause of refugees.
The Republican border plan is a violation of international human rights law, of which the United States is a party.
We must reelect Biden. He is so much better than the Republicans.