Ukraine-border bill on life support as pro-Trump Republicans and progressives come out against it

Conservative Republicans came out staunchly against a bipartisan agreement to restrict immigration and put in place additional border security resources in exchange for aid to Ukraine and Israel on Monday.

House Republican leadership – including House Speaker Mike Johnson, House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, House Majority Whip Tom Emmer and House Republican Conference Chairwoman Elise Stefanik – put out a joint statement saying the bill was “DEAD on arrival.”

Mr Johnson criticised the process late on Monday evening, saying that Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell excluded House Republicans.

“I said ‘it would be nice if we were in the room,’” he told reporters. “It would be nice if we had a say in what ultimately that product would look like. We might have been able to head this mess off at the pass if the House had had its way and if we worked through that process. But what they produced for us right now really isn’t a border security bill. It’s an immigration bill.”

The agreement – negotiated by Independent Senator Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona, Republican James Lankford of Oklahoma and Democrat Chris Murphy of Connecticut – dropped on Sunday evening. The legislation would require the Department of Homeland Security to “shut down” the US-Mexico border when it records an average of 5,000 migrants crossing per day for a week.

Not just Republicans are coming out against the proposed immigration reform — Representative Delia Ramirez, a progressive Democrat from Chicago, Illinois, told The Independent the bill would set the US back “100 years on immigration policy.”

Senator Alex Padilla of California criticised the fact that no Latino Democrats were included in the process.

“I think it was a missed opportunity to have