A new US aid package is still blocked by Republicans
Relations between Joe Biden and Republicans remain tense over Ukraine and American immigration policy. Under pressure from the right, these two topics are being negotiated together in Congress, which threatens the delivery of crucial weapons and equipment to the Ukrainian military.
The Democratic president on Friday called on conservative lawmakers not to partially renegotiate the project on immigration, assuring that if it were to be adopted, it would happen. “The toughest and fairest reforms our country has ever seen to secure the border”. Earlier, the Republican speaker of the House of Representatives, Mike Johnson, warned that any vote on new funding was for aid to Ukraine as well as fortifying the border with Mexico, where record numbers of migrants are arriving. “Still Born”.
The last delivery of American military aid to Ukraine was announced on December 27, and the White House has repeatedly said that without a budget extension, there won’t be any more. Joe Biden is seeking a vote to extend first and foremost aid to Ukraine, of which the United States is the number one supplier of military equipment, and aid to Israel by nearly $100 billion (about 92 billion euros) to meet pressing needs.
The parliamentary debate is now complicated by the momentum of the campaign ahead of the presidential election in November, which once again has every chance of pitting Joe Biden against Donald Trump. The former Republican president has made immigration one of his main axes of attack, and he underlined his opposition to the deal negotiated between the two parties in the US Congress on Saturday. “A bad agreement on the border is worse than no agreement at all!” »The Republican favorite for the 2024 presidential election was written in capital letters on his Truth social network. “Close the border!” »he added.
Additionally, tensions between the federal government and the Republican governor of Texas, who erected barbed wire along the border with Mexico, abdicated Washington’s authority over border policing. He received strong support from Donald Trump and many other leaders of the Republican Party.
