House Speaker Mike Johnson and more than 60 of his Republican members toured the southern border at Eagle Pass, Texas, today to ramp up pressure on President Joe Biden to make more concessions on immigration policy. The visit comes as record numbers of migrants have crossed into the United States illegally in recent weeks and Senate and White House negotiators continue to work on a bipartisan deal combining border policy changes with funding for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan. Those talks have not included Johnson or House Republicans.
Democrats have reportedly made significant concessions in the Senate negotiations, but any bipartisan deal is unlikely to be able to get through the House given the demands by Johnson and his members that border policy changes closely reflect the much more restrictive bill they passed, H.R. 2. Democrats have rejected the GOP provisions as non-starters.
“This is a catastrophe down here, and what the White House is proposing is more money to process and allow more illegals into the country. We need to do the opposite of that,” Johnson told CNN Wednesday afternoon. “This is not about sending more money down here. It’s about changing the policy, and the White House seems not to understand that.”
U.S. agents reportedly recorded more than 300,000 illegal crossings along the southern border in December, the highest ever for a single month, according to preliminary data cited by ABC News. The Biden administration has requested nearly $14 billion in additional border funding, which it says would provide for an additional 1,300 border patrol agents, another 1,000 law enforcement personnel and inspection machines to keep fentanyl out of the country, 1,600 more asylum officers and 375 new immigration judges.
“We got to do something. They ought to give me the money I need to protect the border,” Biden told reporters Tuesday night as he returned to the White House from his holiday.
As House Republicans look to squeeze Biden on the border issue, the House Homeland Security Committee led by Republican Rep. Mark E. Green of Tennessee announced Wednesday that it is moving ahead with impeachment hearings against DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas. The Department of Homeland Security has called such proceedings a baseless waste of time and taxpayer dollars, and Mayorkas says that he has taken the steps allowed by law to deal with the border crisis, pointing the finger at lawmakers.
“Fundamentally, the laws themselves must change,” Mayorkas told CNN.
Democrats also preemptively hit back at Johnson over his trip, with the White House telling reporters that Republicans are “playing politics” and hamstringing efforts to provide vital funding.
"Actions speak louder than words,” White House Spokesman Andrew Bates said in a statement. “House Republicans’ anti-border security record is defined by attempting to cut Customs and Border Protection personnel, opposing President Biden’s record-breaking border security funding, and refusing to take up the President’s supplemental funding request.”
Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer said that bipartisan negotiations were the only solution. “It’s very nice that they have a trip to the border, but the only way to solve this is here working in a bipartisan way with Senate Republicans, Senate Democrats and House Democrats to get it done, period,” Schumer told reporters Wednesday. “And I hope the speaker will realize that if he wants to solve the problem on the border.”
The bottom line: Senate negotiators resumed their in-person talks this week and Schumer said they are making progress. “We’re closer than we’ve ever been,” he said, suggesting that a bipartisan deal would pressure House Republicans to go along. But immigration reforms and a supplemental spending deal likely still face a host of obstacles.
