This Week’s ‘Border Security’ Debate Is a Ruse

Plus: George Santos is raking in the dough.

(Composite / Photos: GettyImages / Shutterstock)

Funding Ukraine, Israel, and Taiwan in a comprehensive foreign aid package by the end of the year is still a distant dream. (Reminder: Congress is now scheduled to adjourn at the end of next week, although that could change.) Because of the toxic atmosphere on the Hill right now, Senate Democrats are being forced to play an age-old political game with Republicans, who are demanding concessions on immigration and border enforcement in exchange for their support for an aid package that under normal circumstances most of them would vote for without imposing conditions.

Yesterday, Republicans tanked a supplemental aid package for Ukraine because it didn’t come with “border security” provisions. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) also voted against it. Sanders did because he feels the Israel aid lacks proper oversight for its use, while Schumer voted no only after the bill had already failed, for procedural reasons: Doing so allows him to bring it back up later.

As a bargaining chip, Schumer offered Republicans a zero-conditions amendment to the bill to allow for a vote on whatever immigration or border enforcement policy they wanted. “This is a golden opportunity for Republicans to present whatever border policy they want, and our side will not interfere with the construction of that amendment in any way,” Schumer said during his floor remarks on Wednesday. Unfortunately, this grand gesture to the minority didn’t change the outcome of the vote on the supplement. It only served as one more reminder of the current reality: that Republicans are not acting in good faith.