This is The New Yorker Radio Hour, a co-production of WNYC Studios and The New Yorker.

Welcome to The New Yorker Radio Hour. I'm David Remnick.

The latest round of military aid for Ukraine and for Israel has been held up in Congress,

not because of spending concerns, but because of border security.

Republicans rejected a spending package earlier this month demanding stricter immigration measures.

House Speaker Mike Johnson reportedly told his colleagues that changes to immigration policy would be their hill to die on.

We have to affect real policy change at the border, and that is a necessary condition to anything we do going forward.

Democrats accuse the Republicans of holding military aid hostage.

Pramilla Jipal, the leader of the progressive Cogas, says the

sweeping changes that Republicans want would only destroy the country's asylum system.

I think we need to put our foot down and say, no, vote on the aid package without those

border policy changes and recognize that some of the things that the

Biden administration have been doing have really been working. The border is surely going to be at the

center of the presidential race in 2024. The wall, of course, has always been an obsession for Donald

Trump, but the issue has reached beyond partisan politics throughout the year. Congressional Democrats

and some big city Democratic mayors are pleading for more federal support. The city of San Diego,

for example, is squeezing dry what's left of their pandemic aid in an attempt to support asylum seekers.

That's money that's likely to run out entirely by the end of this month.

New York City's mayor, Eric Adams, says he's spent nearly $1.5 billion this year to address the migrant crisis,

and that in turn has set off a more general budget crisis in New York.

Libraries are closing their doors earlier, and there are deep

concerns about numerous other city services. Staff writer Dexter Filkins spent time at the southern

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