WASHINGTON, Jan 5 - Facing criticism from conservatives, Senate Republicans on Monday distanced themselves from a bipartisan proposal intended to clamp down on illegal border crossings, signaling a likely defeat in Congress that would leave leaders with no clear path to approve wartime aid for Ukraine.

Senate negotiators on Sunday night released a $118 billion package of border enforcement policy and funding for Ukraine, Israel and other U.S. allies, hoping that the details would win over skeptics, The Associated Press reported. The bill represented a rightward tilt in Senate negotiations over border measures, yet the backlash was intense from conservatives. They savaged the border policy proposal as insufficient, with former President Donald Trump leading the charge.

“This is a gift to the Democrats. And this sort of is a shifting of the worst border in history onto the shoulders of Republicans,” Trump, the likely Republican presidential nominee, said Monday on “The Dan Bongino Show.” “That’s really what they want. They want this for the presidential election so they can now blame the Republicans for the worst border in history.”

Many Senate Republicans — even those who have expressed support for Ukraine aid and the contours of the border policy changes — raised doubts Monday they would support the package. A private Republican meeting was scheduled in the evening to discuss it.

Sen. Roger Wicker, a Mississippi Republican, exited a meeting with other GOP leaders and told reporters, “I think the proposal is dead.”

Still, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer moved toward a key test vote on Wednesday.

“The actions here in the next few days are an inflection point in history,” the New York Democrat said in a floor speech Monday afternoon. “The security of our nation and of the world hangs in the balance.”

Biden, speaking to reporters at a Las Vegas meeting with members of a culinary union, noted that Congress has not approved his funding requests for more Border Patrol agents and immigration judges to handle the number of migrants. “We need help,” he said. “Why won’t they give me the help?”

“Everything in that bipartisan bill gives me control,” Biden said, adding that he was disappointed the border legislation does not address the fate of immigrants who as children entered the U.S. without authorization.

House Speaker Mike Johnson has already called the proposal “dead on arrival” if it passes the Senate, but Biden urged the Republican speaker to “pay attention to what the Senate’s doing.”

The White House has also said Biden would veto a House bill that would only send military aid to Israel, criticizing it as a “cynical political maneuver” that excludes funding for Ukraine, the border and other national security needs.

Johnson, along with the rest of the House’s top GOP leaders, said in a joint statement Monday they were opposed to the legislation because “it fails in every policy area needed to secure our border and would actually incentivize more illegal immigration.” (ap/ez)