Disagreements continues between Biden and the Republicans over the aid to Ukraine and border security

The fate of US military aid allocated to Ukraine, linked to the politically heated issue of illegal immigration, hung in the air on Friday after President Joe Biden rebuked Republicans in Congress for procrastinating in reaching an agreement.

Republican Speaker of the US House of Representatives Mike Johnson said that Congress is not ready to agree to renew US military aid to Ukraine due to the failure to reach a parallel agreement on strengthening the US-Mexican border, the main channel for migrants to enter.

Johnson added in a letter to representatives that the Senate “doesn’t seem able to reach any agreement,” noting that the Republican Party won’t approve the Ukraine aid law in the House of Representatives, and this means that the law “will die in its infancy”.

But Biden responded in a statement that Republicans and Democrats are in fact working intensively to reach a bipartisan agreement to address the issue of border security.

“What was negotiated will be – if passed into law – the toughest and fairest set of reforms ever to secure the border,” Biden said.

He added, “If you are serious about the border crisis, pass a bipartisan law and I will sign it”.

He continued, “This will give me, as president, new emergency authority to close the border when it becomes overcrowded… If I am given this authority, I will use it on the same day I sign the bill into law”.

The Senate was close to reaching a bipartisan agreement that would provide massive aid to the Ukrainian army, which is fighting against the Russian invasion in its third year.

At the insistence of Republicans, Biden’s Democratic Party agreed to link the Ukraine aid law to a wide-ranging package of changes to border security between the United States and Mexico.

This comes after pressure from former President Donald Trump, who appears to be the likely Republican candidate to run in the presidential elections next November.

Trump has raised doubts about Washington’s support for war efforts in Ukraine.

He placed the fear of illegal immigration at the heart of his election campaign.

Trump expressed his opposition this week to the broad border reforms being negotiated in the Senate, saying they were meaningless, even though top Republicans said the proposed measures would represent the toughest restrictions on border crossings in years.

According to Johnson, Biden bears responsibility for a border disaster, noting that Republicans will seek to remove Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas starting next week.

Johnson wrote that a vote to impeach Mayorkas would take place as soon as possible.

Even if the House of Representatives passes the charges, convicting Mayorkas in the Senate is impossible because 51 out of 100 members of the Senate are Democrats.