WASHINGTON — Top U.S. Senate negotiators said Thursday that final details on an immigration policy deal remain under debate in the U.S. Senate, despite outside pressure from GOP presidential front-runner Donald Trump to sink any agreement as he makes immigration his central campaign message.
The No. 2 Senate Republican and GOP whip, Sen. John Thune, said that negotiations on an immigration deal tied to the passage of a multi-billion-dollar global securities supplemental package are at “a critical moment, and we’ve got to drive hard to get this done.”
“If we can’t get there, then we’ll go to Plan B,” the South Dakota Republican said.
He did not go into details on what a “Plan B” would look like or if a deal on immigration would be removed from the supplemental, which would provide critical aid to Ukraine that some Republican and Democratic senators are advocating as the country runs low on ammunition in its war with Russia.
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Funding seen as a last hurdle to final U.S. Senate immigration deal
Like in his first presidential campaign, Trump has made immigration a main theme, often referring to migrants claiming asylum at the Southern border as an “invasion.” On his social media site, Truth Social, he has urged congressional Republicans to not accept a deal.
During a closed-door meeting on Wednesday night, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky acknowledged the difficulty of passing an immigration bill and the potential it would undermine Trump, the top Republican negotiator of the deal, Oklahoma Sen. James Lankford, told reporters at the Capitol.
But Lankford disputed that McConnell’s comments, which were first reported by Punchbowl News, meant a deal on immigration would be killed so that Trump can attack President Joe Biden on the issue.
“McConnell was laying out the political realities of where things are, and it was the elephant-in-the-room conversation,” Lankford said. “We’re in a political election season.”
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But Republican Sen. Mitt Romney of Utah, a longtime Trump critic, told CNN that “the fact that (Trump) would communicate to Republican senators and Congress people that he doesn’t want us to solve the border problem, but basically wants to blame Biden for it — this is really appalling.”
Lankford said that he has not talked to Trump in months and that he, along with the bipartisan group of senators working on the border deal — Sens. Chris Murphy, Democrat of Connecticut, and Kyrsten Sinema, independent of Arizona — are still moving forward.
“It’s now the end of January, in the middle of the presidential primary season, so I think that’s the shift that has occurred that he’s just acknowledging,” Lankford said of McConnell. Trump on Tuesday sailed to victory in the New Hampshire presidential primary, following his victory in the Jan. 15 Iowa caucuses, with former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley his sole major remaining opponent.
It’s also unclear whether any eventual Senate deal will survive in the House, as GOP Speaker Mike Johnson of Louisiana is demanding hard-line House immigration legislation be adopted and is moving forward with impeachment proceedings for U.S. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas over his immigration policies.
Johnson has also thrown his support behind Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, who is defying U.S. Supreme Court orders and the White House in keeping and installing razor wire along the Texas-Mexico border.
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Parole targeted
While no framework or bill text of a Senate deal has been released, some of the proposals put forth would curb the Biden administration’s use of parole authority, which the administration has heavily relied on to grant temporary protections to migrants by allowing them to live and work in the United States without visas.
The Biden administration has invoked its parole authority more often than previous administrations to manage the large number of migrants at the Southern border, according to data compiled by Syracuse University’s Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse, or TRAC, which compiles immigration data.
The deal is also likely to make changes to asylum law that would raise the bar for migrants claiming asylum.
Biden says he’s ‘ready to act’ on ‘significant’ changes at the border, including asylum
For four months, Lankford, Sinema, and Murphy have worked to strike a deal with the White House to free up more than $100 billion in supplemental global security aid to Ukraine, Israel, Taiwan, and for U.S. border security.
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Senate Republicans have hinged their support for the global supplemental package on immigration policy changes.
If passed, it would be the most substantial change to immigration law in 30 years.
Whether a deal passes is up to Republicans, Murphy said.
“We have negotiated a border policy package, we did what Republicans asked us to do, and now they seem to be having a hard time actually closing the deal,” he said.
Murphy said that the negotiators have an outline that appropriators are considering. He added that he’s not sure if aid to Ukraine would be unlinked to changes in immigration policy.
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“I think what is very scary to some Republicans is that the deal we have reached will actually fix a big part of the problem, and I know for Donald Trump and some Republicans, it’s not in their best interest for there to be policy changes that actually fix the broken asylum system, or give the president new tools to better manage the border,” Murphy said.
Sen. Steve Daines, the chair of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, the GOP campaign arm, said that he has not spoken to Trump about the immigration deal.
“It seems to me quite ironic that folks are blaming Trump for the border deal when this is Biden who created the problem and can solve the problem unilaterally through executive action,” the Montana Republican said.
South Carolina’s Lindsey Graham, a staunch Trump supporter, said that he’s talked to the former president and has “told him what we’re trying to accomplish,” but declined to answer questions if the deal could be passed without Trump’s approval.
Some Republicans reluctant to wait
Despite the push from Trump to quash the talks, some Senate Republicans said that they have an obligation to address the Southern border.
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GOP Texas Sen. John Cornyn, who endorsed Trump earlier this week, said that “Texas can’t afford to wait 11 months,” referring to a potential second Trump presidency in 2025.
With GOP pushing hard on immigration, parole emerges as a make-or-break issue in Congress
“Some people have said, well, the (immigration) issue is going to go away, and so that’ll be denying President Trump the issue. I think that’s a fantasy,” Cornyn said. “You’re not going to turn off what’s happening at the border like a water faucet, so this is going to continue to be a problem and it’s obviously a very, potent, political issue.”
He said that while Trump is “an important voice,” the Senate “has a job to do, and we intend to do it.”
Lankford echoed the same sentiments, and expressed doubt that Republicans would be able to get substantial immigration policy done under a second term with Trump because “we tried to do some immigration work while President Trump was president (and) Democrats would not join us in that conversation, and I’m not sure that they would in the next administration in that time period as well.”
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Lankford noted that the deal they are working on now, if passed, will set immigration policy for decades.
“It’s really setting what’s going to be the policy direction for a long time,” he said. “So I encourage people to have a longer look on this, to say, ‘What can we do to be able to make sure that we have a consistent policy that works better than what we have now?’”
GEORGE TOWN, George Town (AP) — Kalen Garry scored 20 points as South Dakota State beat Duquesne 71-60 on Sunday at the Cayman Islands Classic.
Garry also had five rebounds for the Jackrabbits (5-1). Oscar Cluff scored 17 points while shooting 6 of 10 from the field and 5 for 6 from the free-throw line and added 11 rebounds and five assists. Matthew Mors had 15 points and shot 4 of 7 from the field, including 1 for 3 from 3-point range, and went 6 for 8 from the foul line.
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The Dukes (0-5) were led by Tre Dinkins, who recorded 19 points and two steals. Maximus Edwards added 11 points for Duquesne. Jake DiMichele finished with 10 points.
South Dakota State was tied with Duquesne at the half, 33-33, with Garry (12 points) its high scorer before the break. Joe Sayler’s 3-pointer with 8:54 remaining in the second half gave South Dakota State the lead for good at 52-51.
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The Associated Press created this story using technology provided by Data Skrive and data from Sportradar.
UNI’s Parker Keckeisen discusses matchup with Carter Starocci
Northern Iowa’s Parker Keckeisen discusses matchup with Carter Starocci, season ahead
As expected, Northern Iowa wrestling’s dual vs. South Dakota State on Sunday went down to the wire.
Senior heavyweight Lance Runyon and his 7-2 win over No. 28 Luke Rasmussen was the final decider, as the Southeast Polk alum’s takedown and two reversals tied the dual at 15 each by the end of the event, with UNI winning by criteria with the most bout points scored.
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The teams evenly split all 10 bouts, with zero bonus-point victories. While the Jackrabbits brought a tough team to the UNI-Dome, with multiple highly ranked wrestlers, several former Hawkeyes and native Iowans in the lineup, Runyon’s heroics in the dual made the difference.
A pair of wrestlers returned to the mat for UNI after missing all of last season with injury in Kyle Gollhofer at 125 pounds and Cory Land at 133 pounds. Both looked stout against ranked opponents, as Gollhoffer lost an overtime bout with No. 5 Tanner Jordan and Land scrambled his way to a 9-7 win over No. 24 Derrick Cardinal.
To lead 9-6 at the break, Cael Happel picked up a 4-1 win by decision over Julian Tagg at 141 pounds and Ryder Downey secured a stout 8-1 win over No. 17 Cobe Siebrecht, a former Iowa Hawkeye NCAA qualifier at 157 pounds.
The Jackrabbits roared back with a pair of wins by decisions form former Hawkeye Drake Rhodes over Jack Thomsen (12-7), followed by Southeast Polk alum and No. 3 Cade Devos coming back to defeat No. 19 Jared Simma to take a 12-9 lead.
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Following a win by decision for No. 2 Parker Keckeisen over No. 4 Bennett Berge in his dual debut of the season after winning a national title, another former Hawkeye in No. 8 Zach Glazier scored the lone takedown of the match against No. 15 Wyatt Voelker to put SDSU up 15-12 heading into the last match.
With Runyon’s win, the dual was tied 15-15 in the team score, but the Panthers outscored the Jackrabbits 62-51 in total match points to win by 16-15 by criteria.
UNI Wrestling vs. South Dakota State box score
125: Tanner Jordan (SDSU) over Kyle Gollhofer (UNI) (SV-1 7-4)
133: Cory Land (UNI) over Derrick Cardinal (SDSU) (Dec 9-7)
141: Cael Happel (UNI) over Julian Tagg (SDSU) (Dec 4-1)
149: Colin Dupill (SDSU) over Adam Allard (UNI) (Dec 7-6)
157: Ryder Downey (UNI) over Cobe Siebrecht (SDSU) (Dec 8-1)
165: Drake Rhodes (SDSU) over Jack Thomsen (UNI) (Dec 12-7)
174: Cade DeVos (SDSU) over Jared Simma (UNI) (Dec 7-6)
184: Parker Keckeisen (UNI) over Bennett Berge (SDSU) (Dec 8-3)
197: Zach Glazier (SDSU) over Wyatt Voelker (UNI) (Dec 4-3)
285: Lance Runyon (UNI) over Luke Rasmussen (SDSU) (Dec 7-2)
Eli McKown covers high school sports and wrestling for the Des Moines Register. Contact him at Emckown@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter at @EMcKown23.
The wait for a press conference following Tuesday’s 80-74 loss to Milwaukee was the longest since the six-win 2021-22 Duquesne Men’s Basketball Team, but during that time, words had to be said, and head coach Dru Joyce III had some points to get across.
His team, now 0-4 needed to hear him speak and needed to understand what it takes to be winners.
Duquesne men’s and women’s basketball on PSN is sponsored by Moon Golf Club.
Duquesne has been in this position before, in fact earlier this year, when it started 0-5 in Atlantic 10 play. While this can be used as a reference and rallying point, there are countless different pieces in this group and their understanding of what it takes to win could be crucial in determining the outcome of its season.
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With that in mind, Duquesne has three games in the Cayman Island Classic, the first of which tips off Sunday at 1:30 p.m. against South Dakota State.
Here are two keys to prepare for that contest.
1. Determine what being a winner looks like–
“(We’re) going through different challenges. New group of guys trying to learn and gel from each other. No talent issue, we need to develop an attitude of buying in and being completely unselfish especially on the defensive end.” – Jake DiMichele
As mentioned earlier in a three keys piece, there is a simple recipe that makes Duquesne good, getting stops and moving the ball.
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Duquesne’s runs on Tuesday game from getting defensive stops, it was what allowed the Dukes to experience success and clearly the same holds true if they desire victories.
Last year that entailed sacrifices from everyone on the team and the same holds true this season.
Ball movement is just as critical. Far too many times the ball stuck in an area for as much as five seconds, and Joyce had to shout at his team to move the ball.
This season’s high mark for assists is 15 and that is not going to win Duquesne many games. While the aforementioned six-win team would have killed for 15 assists a night, the talent on this Dukes team is far too much to settle for that mark.
“When we minimize the importance of a possession defensively and not be sound and make mistakes, we pay for them,” Joyce explained. “We haven’t been able to get past any mistake that we make. It’s like we owe somebody money. When we don’t move the ball, we struggle. The ball moves we develop good shots. When we lack those things, that’s where the struggle in play comes. We continue to hurt ourselves. It’s not necessarily the other team; it’s us because we are capable of defending.”
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2. Determine a starting five– Under normal circumstances a starting five is not finite and can be ceremonial, but what made Duquesne succeed last year was players understanding his respective role. It is no coincidence that once those were fleshed out, it was off to the races.
Having a steady starting lineup in game five may seem like an overreaction on paper, but it would go a long way in establishing those roles. Of course, those roles can change but the lineup should reward those who have brought it most and can find ways to gel on the court.
Of course, this season is new for everyone, and Duquesne is still recovering from injuries, so there is a period of determining what works, but as far as the win column is concerned, not enough has and when it goes south, it gets exposed.
There also needs to be a willingness to ride the hot hand. In the first half of the Milwaukee game that was Matus Hronsky, he had the most juice of any Duquesne player, but in a coach’s decision, he spent much of the second half on the bench and when he did come in, he had lost his juice. Not only does riding the hot hand reward that player, but it sends a clear message to those on the court that this is the standard if you want to stay on the court.
Personally, my starting five right now would be as follows: Jake DiMichele, Tre Dinkins III, Jakub Necas, Jahsean Corbett, David Dixon, and yes this accounts for all four games.
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DiMichele posted a career high Tuesday and stepped up vocally. He makes the right plays, is a winner and most importantly, is finally coming around in health.
There have been calls for DiMichele to start earlier, but that was not wise. Even he admits he missed an extended period of time and had 2-3 practices before the season opener against Lipscomb, where he got back cut on multiple occasions.
DiMichele can find his shot, can move the ball and most importantly sacrifices and sells out defensively. He can set an example in that regard that his teammates can follow.
Dinkins showed a lot in the second half of Milwaukee and took a couple of big shots a la Dae Dae Grant. While they did not go in, it was the first true showing of point-blank rise and fire. His rally and heart were very noticeable, and it frankly might have been the most heart any Dukes player has displayed thus far. That was absolutely noticed on the court.
Necas was slowed by an injury during workouts, but is a player who puts in the work, can guard practically any position on the court and when right, is a mismatch that can expose an opponent’s weaknesses. He will get going and this is not just based on last year, but the quiet confidence he possesses. The three spot in basketball today is adaptable and has to be a counter puncher based on what the game calls for, and it makes the most sense.
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Corbett has been Duquesne’s most consistent player thus far. He has made the jump from Chicago State and applied himself very well. He had his below par game against Milwaukee, largely due to foul trouble, but he has been the best post thus far, shoots 42.1% from the field, leads the team at 5.8 rebounds per game and finishes plays. He should be rewarded for all of this.
Dixon was injured the summer, but based on what he has shown, especially defensively, deserves the first shot to get right and put it together. He will get stronger as the season progresses and while at 16.7 minutes per game, provided he can avoid the fouls, he can change the game with one block and offensively can give the most versatility from any post on the roster. Dixon’s confidence in himself preseason was the highest it has been in his now three years and giving him the chance to prove that is important for both sides.
There are several knocking on the door, but you also want to have a punch off the bench where the quality can maintain or increase, something just as important that Keith Dambrot was great at finding.
Four games in, Duquesne has 81 fouls, meaning it is getting whistles blown just a tick over 20 times a game, which is also far too much, as is the 50.2% opposing field goal percentage.
The Dukes need to remember what butters their bread so to speak and come together to once again change the story.
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Ultimately, no matter who starts, it is imperative to find combinations that work, there has been nearly a month to find that and with that achieve trust, belief and execution on the court.
By no means is it time to press a panic button yet. It is four games into the season and there is far too much belief to do that.
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