The $118bn package of measures is proposed to support Ukraine and increase security at the Mexican border. In a statement Biden declared that the bill “includes the toughest and fairest set of border reforms in decades”. Republicans are known to be planning to block the bill.
The Republicans do not want the border issue to be resolved as it is one of Trump’s key talking points, and something he will want to have as a key point of his campaigning. For all the posturing he came out with during his previous election and after he was in office, only 52 miles of wall and 455 miles of fencing was added to the 1,954 mile long border.
Walls do not work
While the notion of a wall plays well in the simplistic minds of Republicans, the numbers do not point to them being all that effective. Analysis by the Cato Institute shows that a couple of years after the Trump wall there were more crossings than at any other time. Getting to the other side of a wall is surprisingly easy through the use of climbing, tunnels, ladders, power tools and ramming them. Effectively Trump spent a lot of money not achieving very much.
What is effective is improving the speed and efficiency of processing immigrants. That is a substantial aspect of the Biden proposal.