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but it s far from clear the measure can pass either chamber. the u.s. carrying out strikes on iranian-backed groups in syria and iraq as the white house warns it s just the beginning. and california face ing the threat of historic deadly mud slides from a risky weather event. this is a live look at lax. delays and cancellations already piling up. check your flights. stay off the freeways. we ll have much more. good morning to our viewers in the united states and around the world. i m kasie hunt. it s monday, february 5th. it s 5:00 a.m. here in washington. we now know the details of the long awaited border deal and foreign aid package that senators have been negotiating for months. the $118 billion package would give the president powers to significantly restrict illegal migrant crossings and curb asylum at the border. that would break with decades long protocols. the deal includes more than $20 billion for border security, roughly there are 60 billion for ukraine ....
Of singing in the shower. welcome back to weekends with alex witt i m mara schiavocampo. after a week-long recess congress resumes monday and one of the issues they ll likely be discussing is israel s airstrike on targets in syria and the potential impact on washington. joining me now for more on this from dallas, texas, republican congressman michael burgess. congressman, thanks so much for being here this morning. good morning. happy to be with you. good morning to you. so let s start with the news that israel has launched airstrikes in syria. what are you hearing about this, including what a possible target might be? well, you know, i m hearing what you re hearing, and that the target most likely is the air defenses that the syrians have built up, promise the missile capability they have built up. not the chemical weapons themselves. because obviously that would be counterproductive to actually ....
Disperse those materials with a bombing activity. but there has been some concern that even the ability of the if the united states did want to enforce a no-fly zone, which i don t think is a good idea, but if they did, the syrian air defenses are have become much more robust since 2007 when israel did strike that nuclear facility. when you say that you don t think issuing a no-fly zone is a good idea, what do you think are the best options here for the white house if they choose to get committed in syria? there are no good options. i do know, you know, from personal experience, my son was in the air force when the no-fly zone was enforced over iraq. i mean, it is people look at that and say, well it s not really like we re going to war. but, in fact, it is. i mean it s it s certainly seen as a bellicose statement by one nation to another, if you are, in fact, taking control of the air space and their skies. and we saw in libya, in the early days of that no-fly zone, a jet ....
Much more confirmation on that. i can tell you from here in south carolina where i am talking to senator graham last night he actually said he agrees with the president that boots on the ground aren t necessary. but that perhaps some international coalition could set up a no-fly zone, put more pressure on the syrian government to get out of the way, there s a big concern he has, certainly, for how things might destabilize across the region, whether it s in jordan, south to israel, and of course over in iraq. so he got some initial support last night based on those comments from one of his biggest critics. now president obama is addressing immigration reform in his weekly address this morning. in costa rica yesterday he commented on senator patrick leahy s plans to add an amendment to the immigration bill that would let gay americans sponsor their foreign born partners for green cards. let s listen to that. i think that the provision is the right thing to do. i can also tell you tha ....
Options? there is some pressure on him. i mean, you ve heard a very vocal john mccain and senator lindsey graham come out and say, you know, you need to do something. this is outrageous. but you know, he s taking a very methodical approach to this. he s saying we need to find out when and where and how these were used. you don t see much changing. the only thing you saw yesterday was him kind of saying while we don t want to rule anything out, we are going to not most likely not put boots on the ground. but whether or not israel changes that factor remains to be seen. and, ed, the president had previously said that the use of chemical weapons would be a red line here. they re still trying to determine if they were using, and if so, to what extent. but if there is going to be some kind of intervention by the u.s., what do you think the trigger or triggers for that could be? well, certainly stronger confirmation that they were actually used. i think there s a lot of consternation t ....