Volodymyr Zelenskiy Had a Bad Day on Capitol Hill

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy arrived in Washington on Tuesday with an unenviable task: Convince members of Congress embroiled in their own domestic disputes to authorize additional funds for a war that’s edging into its third year, at a time when foreign aid to Ukraine is increasingly unpopular among Republican voters. GOP lawmakers insist that they will not accept a supplemental package with aid to Ukraine, Israel, and Taiwan without also including provisions to reshape policy related to immigration, illegal border crossings, and humanitarian parole.

Despite Zelenskiy’s efforts—he spent Tuesday meeting with senators, House leaders, and President Joe Biden—Congress is no closer to reaching this elusive deal on aid to Ukraine and immigration policy. On Tuesday, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, one of the most stalwart Republican supporters of aid to Ukraine, said it was “practically impossible” to reach a deal before Congress leaves Washington at the end of the week.

Senators left their meeting with Zelenskiy on Tuesday morning largely sympathetic to his cause but without a change in their positions.

“We’re not holding the border hostage. We’re trying to protect the American people,” said Republican Senator Lindsey Graham. “I told President Zelenskiy, ‘My number one obligation is to secure my country, as well as help yours, and I feel like my country’s border policies are an immediate threat to the safety of the American people.’”

Graham and other Republicans are worried about the possibility of an attack on American soil, convinced that what they see as “open border” policies could allow potential terrorists into the country. “I’ve never been more worried about [another] 9/11 than I am today,” Graham said, citing FBI Director Christopher Wray’s recent comments to the Senate Judiciary Committee that foreign terrorist organizations have the “ability to exploit any port of entry, including our southwest border.”

Senator James Lankford, who has been leading negotiations on immigration policy changes on the Republican side, expressed frustration that the White House had not gotten involved in conversations earlier. Lankford was also skeptical that any consensus could be reached before Congress is set to leave at the end of the week. “You can’t talk about high-level issues in bullet points, when it’s highly technical language. You’ve got to actually work through language to be able to get that done, and we’re still not at that point, which means we’re not going to finish in the next 24 hours, 36 hours,” Lankford said.

Conversations did appear to be moving forward; Lankford, along with Democratic Senator Chris Murphy and independent Senator Kyrsten Sinema, would met with Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, White House staff, and staff for Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and McConnell on Tuesday afternoon. (Sinema said after the meeting that the assembled group had made “substantive progress.”)

“I wish that [Republicans] were not demanding that we settle one of the most difficult, vexing domestic political issues in order to save Ukraine and Europe,” Murphy said. “Now is the time for Republicans to get in closing mode.… We are willing to meet Republicans in the middle; they have to be willing to be there as well.” Republicans counter that Biden himself first raised the issue of immigration by including billions of dollars in funding to border security measures in his initial supplemental funding request.

Meanwhile, some more progressive Democrats have worried that the president will cave to Republican demands on asylum policy, and Latino lawmakers have noted that none of the core group of senators negotiating an agreement are themselves Latino. “We are deeply concerned that the President would consider advancing Trump-era immigration policies that Democrats fought so hard against—and that he himself campaigned against—in exchange for aid to our allies that Republicans already support,” said Senator Alex Padilla, the chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee subcommittee on immigration, and Representative Nanette Barragan, the chair of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, in a joint statement this week.

They particularly raised concerns about potential efforts to restrict access to asylum and expediting deportation for certain migrants. Tightening requirements for humanitarian parole, and limiting the president’s power to grant parole, are also reportedly under consideration.

But Representative Henry Cuellar, a Democrat who represents a district on the southern border in Texas, argued on Tuesday that “both sides need to get off their comfort zones.” “We’ve got some members that are saying, ‘Don’t make any changes.’ That doesn’t work,” Cuellar said. “Will they accept [a deal]? I think reluctantly.”

Despite the immediacy of these issues, Republicans also told reporters after the meeting with Zelenskiy that the Ukrainian president had not presented a deadline for obtaining aid. “It’s not an excuse to say this should string on forever, but it’s not like there’s a deadline—like a government shutdown—on December 31,” said GOP Senator John Cornyn.

Some senators also said the U.S. could continue to send weaponry to Ukraine in the interim. Biden told reporters on Tuesday that he had approved “another $200 million drawdown” for aid to Ukraine.

“There were not [any] dates discussed … other than the fact he made it clear that if they had air defense systems made available that they can move more rapidly than what they are,” said GOP Senator Mike Rounds on Tuesday morning.

Even if Senate negotiators were to miraculously reach a deal before they are set to leave Washington, it would still need to be considered in the House. The lower chamber is also set to recess at the end of the week, and it’s unclear whether they would stay in town to pass any legislation. Johnson said in an appearance on a conservative radio show on Tuesday morning that the House would not remain in session unless the Senate could produce a proposal, adding that he was “not going to have everybody sit here through Christmas twiddling their thumbs.”

Moreover, many conservative Republicans are insistent that any deal on immigration policy should include H.R. 2, a GOP bill with hard-line border security provisions; of course, such a measure would not receive support from the Democrats who control the Senate. Speaking to reporters after meeting with Zelenskiy on Tuesday, Johnson said that “what the Biden administration seems to be asking for is billions of additional dollars with no appropriate oversight.”

“I have also made very clear from Day One that our first condition on any national security supplemental spending package is about our own national security first. The border is an absolute catastrophe,” Johnson said.

If Ukraine aid were more popular with Republican voters, it would be far easier to pass the supplemental package, even without immigration and border policy. “I just don’t think that Democrats specifically appreciate how committed Republicans are to securing our southern border,” said GOP Senator Eric Schmitt, a skeptic of aid to Ukraine. “If you listen to the people back home, they’re not interested in a blank check for Ukraine, when they see 12,000 people coming across our open southern border every day.” (Although the southern border is not “open,” Axios reported last week that 12,000 migrants were encountered in one day crossing the border illegally or at ports of entry, according to internal data from DHS.)

Even though all signs point to Congress leaving before a deal is reached, Lankford insisted that the work will continue for as long as it takes—even over the holiday. “That doesn’t mean we stop. We’ve got to keep going,” Lankford said. “In all likelihood, this place would shutter, and everyone else would celebrate Christmas but us.”