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In a rare display of widespread bipartisanship, the Senate voted 100-0 to cease aid to Azerbaijan for the next two years amid concerns that the country might soon invade neighboring Armenia.
As reported by Defense News, all senators unanimously approved the Armenian Protection Act through unanimous consent on Wednesday. Senator Gary Peters (D-Mich.) introduced the legislation, which bars President Joe Biden from granting a waiver in fiscal years 2024 and 2025 to continue supplying security assistance to Azerbaijan.
The measure’s passing follows the departure of over 100,000 Armenians from the contested Nagorno-Karabakh region due to an ongoing Azerbaijani siege that has endured for more than nine months. Armenia has levied accusations of ethnic cleansing against Azerbaijan.
“We must send a strong message and show our partners around the world that America will enforce the conditions that we attach to military aid,” Peters, who sits on the Armed Services Committee, said on the Senate floor Wednesday. “If we do not take action when countries willfully ignore the terms of our agreements with them, our agreements will become effectively meaningless and toothless.”
In mid-October, Politico reported that Secretary of State Antony Blinken informed a select group of lawmakers that officials were monitoring the potential for Azerbaijan to launch an invasion against its neighbor in the coming weeks.
The outlet added:
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev has previously called on Armenia to open a “corridor” along its southern border, linking mainland Azerbaijan to an exclave that borders Turkey and Iran. Aliyev has threatened to solve the issue “by force.”
In an Oct. 3 phone call, lawmakers pressed Blinken on possible measures against Aliyev in response to his country’s invasion of the Nagorno-Karabakh region in September, the people said, who were granted anonymity to discuss the sensitive call.
Blinken responded that the State Department was looking at avenues to hold Azerbaijan accountable and isn’t planning to renew a long-standing waiver that allows the U.S. to provide military assistance to Baku.
“Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs James O’Brien told the House Foreign Affairs Committee on Wednesday before the Senate vote that the Biden administration does not intend to renew the waiver needed to provide security aid to Azerbaijan,” Defense News added. “The waiver is a longstanding point of contention between the State Department and the Congressional Armenian Caucus, which boasts more than 100 lawmakers.”
Meanwhile, the migrant crisis along the U.S.-Mexico border under President Joe Biden has gotten even worse than it was before, hitting the highest single-day number of encounters at the border on Tuesday.
As reported by Fox News, multiple Customs and Border Protection (CBP) sources told the outlet “that there were over 12,000 migrant encounters on Tuesday, adding that “over 10,200 of those were Border Patrol encounters of illegal immigrants coming between ports of entry.”
“That Border Patrol number is among the highest number of encounters ever recorded for the agency by itself but breaks a record when combined with the encounters by CBP’s Office of Field Operations at ports of entry,” the outlet noted further.
As of Wednesday morning, the agency is grappling with an excess of 22,000 migrants in custody, and multiple prominent Border Patrol sectors are significantly surpassing their capacity, according to sources. Fiscal Year 2023 has established a new record with 2.4 million migrant encounters, with September registering the highest monthly total ever recorded—exceeding 260,000 encounters. Although October recorded a slightly lower figure, with over 240,000 encounters, it still marked a record for the month, Fox News noted.
Republicans and Democrats in Congress can’t agree on a border package.
The GOP wants limits on admissions and parole after blaming President Joe Biden’s reversal of then-President Trump’s immigration and border enforcement policies for the current crisis. Democrats, meanwhile, say they will only agree to policy changes if they can get amnesty for all illegal migrants currently in the country. And the Biden administration is requesting $14 billion more for border operations in a supplemental measure.
Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, who is essentially just carrying out the White House’s policies, told CNN Wednesday that the administration is open to some GOP proposals but not others.
