The White House has urged Congress to approve a bipartisan agreement that seeks to address national security concerns.
The national security agreement would establish a temporary border emergency authority to enable the U.S. president and the secretary of the Department of Homeland Security to temporarily prevent individuals from seeking asylum in the event that the southwest border is overwhelmed, the White House said Sunday.
The measure would recalibrate the asylum screening process by modifying the screening asylum threshold from “significant possibility” to “reasonable possibility” and moving consideration of statutory bars to asylum eligibility into the screening stage.
Other provisions in the proposed legislation are establishing an efficient process for considering asylum and other protection claims; providing critical funding for countering drug trafficking and smuggling, asylum processing and border security; and strengthening federal law against fentanyl trafficking.
The bipartisan agreement includes providing military aid to help Ukraine defend itself against Russian aggression, investing in the defense industrial base to support U.S. jobs and offering resources to help allies in the Indo-Pacific region to develop the capabilities needed to counter threats from China and other emerging issues.