According to Breitbart News, House Majority Leader, Kevin McCarthy, will introduce a bill this week to fund the wall on the border between the US and Mexico, which has long been a promise of President Donald Trump.
The bill would set up the midterm elections next month as a kind of referendum on the Trump administration’s immigration policy, with outgoing Speaker of the House of Representatives, Paul Ryan, hinting at the likelihood of a border wall funding showdown after the elections on Monday. McCarthy says that a bill, introduced this week, will include full funding – $23.4 billion more than has been paid – for the wall and several other measures to aid immigration enforcement, already approved by the House of Representatives.
Congress approved $1.6 billion in funding for the border wall in the 2018 fiscal year, and the new Build the Wall, Enforce the Law Act from McCarthy will ensure completion of the wall, and also provide funds for other measures. McCarthy says that the inability to secure the country’s borders, which is a basic responsibility for any nation, has challenged the legal immigration process in the US for decades.
The new bill will focus on enforcement and security issues and have no impact on the issue of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, the future of which remains contentious. The bill is expected to pass in the House but faces grimmer prospects in the Senate.