(Reuters) -U.S. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said Sunday that the Senate would try again to pass a bipartisan border security bill this week after an earlier attempt failed when enough Republicans withdrew their support at the former president’s urging Donald Trump.
“I hope that Republicans and Democrats can work together in the coming week to pass the bipartisan Border Act,” Schumer said in a letter to senators.
The Border Act would, among other things, reform U.S. asylum laws, hire thousands of border agents and try to curb fentanyl smuggling, the Democratic leader said.
Leaders of the Republican-controlled House of Representatives called the bill politically motivated.
“If it were to reach the House of Representatives, the bill would be dead on arrival,” House Speaker Mike Johnson and other Republicans said in a statement.
The White House said it strongly supported the legislation.
Previous legislation was tied to U.S. foreign aid to Ukraine and Israel, but this bill would stand alone, Schumer said.
Record numbers of migrants have been caught crossing the US-Mexico border since Democratic President Joe Biden took office in 2021, and border security has become one of the leading issues in the presidential campaign. Trump is trying to return to office by challenging Biden in the November 5 election.
In February, a bipartisan immigration bill stalled in the Senate after Trump told Republicans not to support it even though it included several border security measures they had sought.
“The former president made it clear that he wanted to keep the issue for his campaign rather than resolve the issue in a bipartisan manner. At the right time, many of our Republican colleagues abruptly changed course from their previous support and announced their new opposition to the bipartisan proposal. Schumer said.
(Reporting by Daniel Trotta; Editing by Donna Bryson, Sandra Maler and Chizu Nomiyama)
