WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Joe Biden was meeting with House of Representatives Speaker Mike Johnson and other congressional leaders on Wednesday afternoon to discuss immigration policy at the U.S. border and funding for Ukraine.
Republicans in Congress have blocked emergency funding that Biden has requested for Ukraine and threaten to force a partial shutdown of the government in an effort to tighten security along the U.S.-Mexico border; they blame Biden’s policies for leading to an influx of immigrants into the United States.
Biden, a Democrat, sought to reform the U.S. immigration system with proposed legislation at the beginning of his term that was opposed by Republicans. The White House is open to new restrictions on who can seek U.S. asylum and expanding deportation authority, but many Democrats oppose such measures.
Johnson told reporters before the meeting that he would press Biden for clarity on the endgame for the war between Russia and Ukraine and accountability for U.S. funds to support Kiev.
“But before we even talk about Ukraine, I’m going to tell the president what I’m telling all of you and we’ve told the American people: border, border, border. We have to take care of our own house. We have to secure our own border before we talk about doing anything else,” Johnson said.
A Johnson aide said the speaker agreed on the need to stand up to Russian President Vladimir Putin, but felt that securing the U.S. border was a higher priority.
Biden has requested $61.4 billion in additional funding to help supply Ukraine with weapons and replenish U.S. stocks. It is part of a “supplemental” request that also includes $14.3 billion for Israel and $13.6 billion for border protection.
“Today’s meeting’s about Ukraine. That’s what we’re going to focus on in this discussion,” White House spokesperson John Kirby told reporters. “As the speaker knows quite well, we continue to negotiate in good faith in a bipartisan way with the Senate, with Republicans and Democrats up there on Capitol Hill, about the national security supplemental … which obviously includes money for border security.”
(Reporting by David Morgan, Nandita Bose, Richard Cowan and Jeff Mason; Editing by Heather Timmons and Jonathan Oatis)
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