Partisan division over U.S.-Mexico border security threatens to tank a Democratic effort this month to ramp up federal grant funds to help migrants who recently crossed the border, including those whom Republican-led states have bused and flown across the country.
Both the White House and Senate Democratic leadership hope to include language in an upcoming stopgap funding measure to boost assistance for local nonprofits that help asylum-seekers.
The push represents Washington’s response to Republican governors who, in order to voice opposition to the Biden administration’s border policies, have sent migrants to areas they perceive as politically liberal — such as Chicago, New York City and Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts. — in an apparent stunt that has local governments asking for help.
