Speaker Mike Johnson is under fire once again after saying House Republicans “can’t” support a solution addressing the border until either Donald Trump or another Republican is elected to the White House.
Johnson reportedly made his remarks on a Sunday evening call with House Republicans, saying he will not accept the Senate border deal crafted by U.S. Senator James Lankford (R-OK) with the support of Senate GOP Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and Senate Democratic Majority Leader Chuck Schumer.
Punchbowl News co-founder Jake Sherman Sunday night reported, “Johnson says house gop position is hr2. And reiterated he won’t take the senate deal.”
HR2 is the House’s far-right anti-immigrant legislation. It reportedly has no chance of passing in the Senate. It is opposed by immigration advocates, the Biden White House, Senate Democrats and some Senate Republicans, and other groups including Catholic Bishops.
House Republican Majority Leader Steve Scalise, Sherman added, “says senate bill is DOA in house,” meaning “dead on arrival.”
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But Sherman also added news that spurred outrage: “Johnson says congress can’t solve border until Trump is elected or a republican is back in the White House.”
Democratic members of Congress, political observers, and immigration advocates were furious.
“There it is! They don’t want to actually fix anything. Immigration and the border are just talking points to campaign on,” wrote U.S. Rep. Maxwell Frost (D-FL).
“Congress could of course act but House Republicans, notwithstanding their relentless demagoguery about it, don’t want to act they don’t want to act because acting might help Biden,” observed veteran journalist John Harwood.
“Wow. Only days after he suggested the border could be solved ‘overnight’ with executive action alone, Johnson seemingly refuses to let ANY law responding to the situation at the border be passed. It’s a staggering refusal to govern and in some ways an open embrace of chaos,” said attorney and American Immigration Council policy director Aaron Reichlin-Melnick.
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Reichlin-Melnick, a former NYC Legal Aid attorney, also responded to the HR2 portion of Johnson’s remarks: “If Johnson’s demand is HR2 or shutdown, there will be a shutdown. HR2 was primarily a messaging bill not ever intended to become a law, and I say that as someone who has read all 213 pages of it multiple times. There are some WEIRD things in there.”
The right-leaning news outlet The Hill calls HR2, “a sweeping bill that would drastically restrict the asylum process while establishing a vast new surveillance system to forcibly freeze regional migration and crack down on the existing undocumented population.” It also says the legislation “Purges the U.S. workforce of undocumented workers,” “Build[s] a wall while slashing immigrant services,” “Ends protections for migrant children,” and “Doesn’t address legal immigration.”
U.S. Rep. Veronica Escobar (D-TX) said the House Republican Leadership “never wanted to fix our broken immigration system. In fact, they want to make things worse. Their one bill, HR2 is a farce because it depends 100% on Mexico.”
Joshua Breisblatt, the Democratic Chief Counsel for the House Judiciary Committee’s Immigration Subcommittee also weighed in on the HR2 issue:
“Just as a reminder this bill has bipartisan opposition in the House and Senate when it got a vote. Given their small margin, it’s unclear if the House could even pass HR2 today.”
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