McALLEN, Texas (Border Report) — A group of nonprofits that advocate for asylum-seekers say Congress should not rush massive immigration policy changes into proposed spending bills tied with Ukraine because it would provoke “chaos” in border communities, like South Texas, and make asylum standards much tougher.
“Republican members of Congress are misusing this negotiation to extract changes that would actually create more chaos and disorder on our border. And in the process, they’re demanding impossible standards for securing asylum or curbing parole authority as a condition for moving funding for Ukraine,” Vanessa Cárdenas, executive director of America’s Voice said during a media call Tuesday.
President Joe Biden has requested a $106 billion aid package for Ukraine, Israel and other supplemental spending needs. Still, GOP members of Congress are demanding any funding to be tied to immigration policy changes to stop the flow of migrants crossing from Mexico on the Southwest border.
Some of these proposals include increasing the standard of credible fear that asylum-seekers must prove to U.S. authorities in order to come into the country; reducing parole for certain populations, and requiring that migrants fly directly to the United States from their home countries, which they say will preclude poorer immigrants from asylum eligibility.
Lines of asylum-seekers are seen being processed on Sept. 28, 2023, in Brownsville on the border by federal Border Patrol agents. (U.S. Border Patrol)
“Democrats instead should be fighting for changes that actually improve the system,” Cárdenas said. “They should be asking to getting more people working quickly and contributing fully to the economy, initiating funding to get more aid to border communities and cities and (non-governmental organizations) doing so much work in border communities and across our country.”
Lia Parada, chief advocacy officer for the Immigration Hub, likens the proposals to Trump-era immigration policies.
“It’s clear that GOP senators are not interested in solutions they are looking to extract Trump-like permanent changes to asylum law all to save face for a vote for Ukraine,” Parada said. “This is pretty much an end to asylum as we know it.”
But Republicans have vowed to hold firm.
“Border security needs to be a part of this package if it’s going to move out of the Senate,” Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Kentucky, said earlier this month.
On Tuesday, McConnell tweeted that border security remains key for his party to pass the president’s supplemental spending bill.
“National security begins with border security, and on @POTUS’ watch, record illegal migration has left our asylum and parole systems in desperate need of reform. To pass the Senate, supplemental national security legislation will have to make meaningful policy changes to address the border crisis,” McConnell tweeted.
Sen. Tom Cotton, of Arkansas, is among a select group of Republicans involved in the spending talks. He told the Associated Press before Thanksgiving that negotiations were stalled “because Democrats have not yet accepted that the negotiations are not border security for Democratic immigration priorities. It’s border security for Ukraine aid.”
In response to a question from Border Report on Tuesday, advocates said policy changes would strip border law enforcement of the ability to analyze and grant parole to vulnerable populations, like young families or pregnant women, and new policies could force incarceration and detention of all regardless of whether asylum-seekers have a criminal background or pose a national security threat.
Stricter measures also would likely increase the number of migrants waiting in Mexican border towns, they said.
“On both sides of the border it would cause significant chaos,” said Andrea Flores, vice president for immigration policy and campaigns at FWD.us.
“When you’re taking these critical, individualized law enforcement decisions away from law enforcement, and you are trying to create a review process where Congress is coming in and saying we approve of that use of parole you can imagine how difficult it will be for Border Patrol and the field operations officers do their jobs,” Flores said.
“The initial screenings will increase the burden of proof so high that eligible asylum seekers will be unable to seek asylum,” Parada said.
The solutions they advocate Congress pass instead, and in separate immigration legislation, include more funding for “orderly processing at the border”; adding funds to reduce the backlog of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services work permit applications; and more funds for NGOs and nonprofits and municipalities through FEMA’s Shelter Services Program, which gives money to organizations that help migrants who are legally released into the United States.
“We call on Democratic senators who vowed to restore our asylum system when Trump had canceled it and stood shoulder to shoulder with us to protect it, and to not take the bait and instead lead by funding Ukraine and resourcing the border,” Parada said.
Sandra Sanchez can be reached at SSanchez@BorderReport.com.
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