White House and Congressional Hispanic Caucus Meet to Discuss Potential Immigration Deal, No Agreement Reached Yet

The White House met with leaders of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus (CHC) on Saturday to discuss a potential immigration deal. The meeting occurred on Zoom and involved leaders and senators in the caucus, White House Chief of Staff Jeff Zients, and Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.

The Democratic lawmakers had been seeking the meeting for weeks as they became increasingly concerned that the administration would agree to an immigration deal that they found unacceptable. The White House told the CHC members that while progress had been made, a deal trading stricter U.S. asylum policy, sought by the GOP, in exchange for Ukraine aid is unlikely before Christmas.

The chamber isn’t set to return to business until Jan. 9, meaning more aid — if it’s approved at all — will be delayed. At issue is what Democrats are willing to agree to on border measures in order to gain the support of Republicans to pass aid for Ukraine and Israel, which remains a top priority for President Joe Biden.

On Sept. 30, House Republicans stripped out of a stopgap spending bill about $6 billion for arms to be sent to Ukraine in its battle against Russian invaders. In October, the White House came back with a much larger request to arm Ukraine, in addition to Israel and Taiwan, topping $100 billion overall.

The White House and the CHC have yet to reach an agreement on the immigration deal. It is unclear when the chamber will reconvene and if a deal will be reached before then.