How the Senate’s Emerging Border Deal Could Change Biden’s Immigration Policy

Republicans and Democrats have agreed to try to reduce the number of migrants granted parole to stay in the United States, but cementing the compromise will take money and persuasion on both sides.

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Immigration at the southern U.S. border has been the source of debate between Republicans in Congress and the White House.

A bipartisan group of senators has agreed on a compromise to crack down on the surge of migrants across the United States border with Mexico, including reducing the number who are allowed to live and work in the country temporarily, but a final deal depends on resolving critical funding disputes.

Much of the recent haggling over the emerging agreement — and a point of contention for its critics — has been about how to limit the number of people who are granted parole, a status that allows migrants without visas to live and work in the United States temporarily. Drawing broader support for the plan in the Senate would clear away the biggest obstacle to congressional approval of tens of billions of dollars in aid to Ukraine for its war against Russian aggression, which Republicans have said they will block absent a deal to clamp down at the border.

The G.O.P. considers parole a dangerous loophole that fuels illegal immigration and must be tightly closed. To many Democrats, it is a crucial tool that allows the administration to treat desperate migrants humanely, which must be preserved, particularly for vulnerable populations fleeing failing states and war.

Bridging the gap will likely hinge on the two sides agreeing on how much federal money to spend to try to decrease net immigration numbers, and persuading Republicans that the deal’s measures will be effective. On Monday, Senate leaders warned that getting a final deal depended on resolving those remaining differences.

“It’s certainly not a done deal yet; there are a handful of issues that have not yet been agreed to,” Senator Chuck Schumer, Democrat of New York and the majority leader, said on the floor. “On something as complicated as the border, it’s not just what we do that matters. It’s how we do it.”

Here’s how parole works, and why it’s central to sealing any border deal in Congress.

Parole is a stopgap measure for migrants without legal status.

Parole authority, which has existed since the 1950s, allows the government to extend migrants a special status to remain in the United States for a certain period of time. It was designed to be used only in cases of humanitarian need, or if there was a public benefit to allowing a migrant into the country.

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