How the White House got involved in the border talks on Capitol Hill — with Ukraine aid at stake

White House chief of staff Jeff Zients recently heard from a powerful Democratic senator that steep levels of migration at the U.S.-Mexico border had become, in a word, untenable. Illinois Sen. Dick Durbin, the No. 2 Democrat, had signed onto a statement denouncing “reports of harmful changes to our asylum system” that were being proposed as part of a border deal on Capitol Hill. “I told him I thought the current situation is unsustainable, and the Democrats need to be part of the solution,” Durbin said.