‘Border, border, border.’ Why Roger Marshall says he’ll vote against aid to Ukraine, Israel
When Sen. Roger Marshall went back to Kansas over Thanksgiving, he said he took his grandkids sledding and saw old friends. But everyone he talked to was worried about the southern border, he said on the Senate floor.
“In Kansas, the heartland, the middle of the country, the middle state, people are concerned about their own safety and security,” Marshall, a Kansas Republican, said last week.
As Senate Republicans are pushing for Congress to pass stiffer immigration policies in the final weeks of the year — limiting asylum claims, preventing people who cross the border illegally from being paroled into the U.S. and constructing a stronger barrier at the border — Marshall has used a common refrain: “Border, border, border.”
Congress has failed to make a serious effort to address immigration policy for more than a decade. In the meantime, illegal crossings at the Southwest border have increased by 42% since 2021, creating a political and humanitarian crisis throughout the southwest.
The latest effort to address the issue comes in the form of a blockade. Republicans say they will only support a $110 billion bill to send military and humanitarian aid to Israel and Ukraine – along with money for the southern border and military efforts to combat China’s growing power in the Pacific – if it includes immigration reform. The GOP conference plans to vote against a spending package without immigration reform Wednesday.
It comes as a growing contingent of Republicans are pushing back against providing money for Ukraine’s nearly two-year effort to beat back a Russian invasion as it’s settled into a stalemate – effectively bolstering congressional support for military aid through the longstanding conservative goal of imposing stricter immigration law.
“That’s because [Republicans] really want to vote for Ukraine so badly, they’ve got to say something to excuse their vote,” said Sen. Josh Hawley, a Missouri Republican, who has long opposed funding for Ukraine.
Democrats say the Republican immigration demands are too extreme and are bogging down the military aid bill, making America look weak amid threats to democracy overseas.
“This mess was created entirely by hard right Republicans and alarmingly, Republican leadership has gotten behind them,” said Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, a New York Democrat. “And most of those hard right Republicans, who say we must have border [reform], don’t want to vote for aid for Ukraine in any case.”
Marshall is among the hard-line Republicans who oppose Ukraine aid.
“I don’t think he knows that,” Marshall said, responding to Schumer’s comment that he wouldn’t vote for aid. “I think that he’s making a pretty huge assumption. I do think it’s about priorities. There’s gonna be no discussion about Ukraine up here until we secure a border.”
While Hawley has opposed aid to Ukraine from the beginning, Marshall originally supported the packages. But as the base of the Republican Party soured on sending additional money to the country, so has he.
But Marshall supports funding for Israel — he twice tried to force the Senate to pass legislation that would have provided aid to Israel without any other aid attached — and he supports efforts to prevent fentanyl from coming into the country, which is also included in the bill.
Marshall wants the Senate to pass a specific immigration bill, passed by the House earlier this year, that would prevent illegal immigrants from being released into the country until their case can be heard, would limit who is able to claim asylum and would resume construction of a wall at the southern border.
Hawley and Sen. Eric Schmitt, a Missouri Republican, have also signed on to the Senate version of the bill, which Senate Democrats have called a non-starter. House Democrats disparagingly called the GOP-led bill the “Child Deportation Act.”
“If Republicans want to have a serious conversation about immigration reform, we’re ready to do that,” said Olivia Dalton, the White House deputy press secretary. “But, you know, we also need them to move expeditiously and take action now to fund our critical national security needs, which, by the way, include funding for border security and to stop the flow of fentanyl into the country.”
Earlier this year, Marshall sponsored a resolution called the “Open Borders Invasion Resolution,” an attempt to authorize the states to allow state and local law enforcement to enforce federal immigration law. It did not pass the Senate.
“Why doesn’t this president want to secure a border?” Marshall said. “I think that’s the question that needs to be answered. Life is about priorities. And my priority is to secure a border.”
Hawley introduced a similar bill this year, which also didn’t pass the Senate. But while Marshall has said his priority is the border, Hawley said he doesn’t believe the talks over immigration reform will go very far.
He said he won’t support any aid for Ukraine or Israel unless Congress passes his bill to expand health benefits for Missourians who were exposed to radiation from the Manhattan Project when the government leaked nuclear waste into Coldwater Creek.
“I’m not gonna vote for billions of dollars for foreign nations while people in Missouri and everywhere else around the country exposed to radiation get zero,” Hawley said.
Schmitt, too, said he wasn’t expecting a bill that would significantly affect immigration. He has pushed for the Senate to hold separate votes on all the elements of the spending package.
“I know that there’s discussions right now about border security and I’m gonna vote for the toughest border package possible,” Schmitt said. “I just don’t know if that’s really possible given the Democrats’ position.”
Still, some Republicans see this legislation as the most effective way to push for tougher immigration law, as the White House has implored Congress to pass additional funding for Ukraine.
“We want it to actually happen and this is an opportunity,” said Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Kentucky Republican. “Honestly, if I were the president, looking at my numbers on this, I’d want to do something about it, it might actually improve his position.”
Both McConnell and the White House have made the argument that Ukraine aid is essential for displaying support for democracy and have said that most of the money is being used to spur the U.S. defense industry and modernize weapons.
Sen. Jerry Moran, a Kansas Republican who supports Ukraine aid, said he would also like to see tougher immigration policy and will vote against an effort to consider the aid to Ukraine and Israel without immigration reform on Wednesday.
“There needs to be movement on both sides to get something accomplished,” Moran said. “It’s important to get done. Making changes in our border policy is something that we’ve tried to do for a decade or longer and if we can accomplish it in this setting, that’s really valuable in and of itself.”
This story was originally published December 6, 2023 at 6:00 AM.
