WASHINGTON — Key Senate negotiators say they’ve struck a tentative deal to enact tougher U.S. immigration and asylum laws, marking a significant breakthrough on a politically explosive issue as the 2024 election year gets underway.
But the pact is in jeopardy even before senators release the text of the bill, which they’re hoping to do in the coming days in anticipation of voting on it beginning next week.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said Thursday that senators plan to release the “full text” of the immigration package, which will include aid funding for Ukraine and Israel, “as early as tomorrow” and “no later than Sunday.”
“That will give members plenty of time to read the bill before voting,” he said, adding he plans to hold the first procedural vote on the package “no later than Wednesday.”
The tentative agreement, struck by Sens. James Lankford, R-Okla., Chris Murphy, D-Conn., and Kyrsten Sinema, I-Ariz., represents an ambitious effort to tackle a problem that has bedeviled Congress for decades — in the middle of an election year.
“For all intents and purposes, we have an agreement,” Murphy said.
The measure faces uncertainty in the Senate, pushback from House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., and a steady bombardment of opposition from likely GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump that is endangering Republican support. Some in the party worry that it could give President Joe Biden a victory on a political vulnerability in his 2024 re-election bid.
“I feel like the guy standing in the middle of the field in a thunderstorm holding up the metal stick currently,” Lankford said, adding that process has been “really intense.”
Lankford maintained that he had kept Johnson informed of the scope and details of the border bill throughout the process, keeping the speaker’s staff in the loop throughout the final stages.
But Johnson’s office pushed back on Lankford’s characterization of the discussions, telling NBC News in a statement: “Senator Lankford nor his office has never provided Speaker Johnson’s office with proposed legislative text or a written description of the new expulsion authority. They have described it in conversation with less detail than what is available in published news reports.”
The deal would take a three-pronged approach to mitigating the chaos at the border. First, it would limit options for people outside the U.S. to pursue asylum. Second, it would raise the standard for people…
Click Here to Read the Full Original Article at NBC News Top Stories…