President Joe Biden has accused former President Donald Trump of trying to block the bipartisan bill on border security and foreign aid.
U.S. senators had reached a bipartisan agreement over the weekend on a national security bill that aims to secure the border and fix the broken immigration system.
The proposed legislation includes a tough and fair set of border reforms and provisions to grant new aid to Ukraine and Israel.
The bill would introduce measures to try to control illegal immigration at the U.S.-Mexico border, which is at record level, and to stop the abuse of parole.
The Emergency National Security Supplemental Appropriations Act is reportedly doomed to fail as more Republican lawmakers vowed to vote against the progress of the legislation.
A vote on a procedural motion that would pave the way for the Senate to open debate on the bill is set for Wednesday.
Biden termed the bipartisan agreement as one “that represents the most fair, humane reforms in our immigration system in a long time and the toughest set of reforms to secure the border ever.”
But he said all indications are this bill won’t even move forward to the Senate floor.
“Because Donald Trump thinks it’s bad for him politically,” Biden said. “Therefore, even though it would help the country, he’s not for it. He’d rather weaponize this issue than actually solve it”.
Biden made a scathing attack on his predecessor in his address to the nation from the White House and urged Congress to pass the bill.
“So, for the last 24 hours, he’s done nothing, I’m told, but reach out to Republicans in the House and the Senate and threaten them and try to intimidate them to vote against this proposal,” the president said. “And it looks like they’re caving.”
Biden said the former President is “desperately trying to stop this bill because he’s not interested in solving the border problem; he wants a political issue to run against me on.”
Biden made it clear that he is going to take this issue as one of his main weapons in the presidential election campaign against “Donald Trump and his MAGA Republican friends.”
He noted that everyone from the Wall Street Journal to the Border Patrol to the United States Chamber of Commerce support this bill.
The WSJ endorsed the bill with the headline reading, “A Border Security Bill Worth Passing. The Senate Has Reforms Trump Never Came Close to Getting.”
Biden reminded that every month that passes without new aid to Ukraine means fewer artillery shells, fewer air defense systems, fewer tools for Ukraine to defend itself against the Russian onslaught.
“Supporting this bill is standing up to Putin. Opposing this bill is playing into his hands,” he told the nation.
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