Republican Speaker of the House Mike Johnson is under fire after mocking U.S. Border Patrol agents by baselessly suggesting the reason they support the Senate border bill is personal financial gain.
One day after the Senate released its massive border bill, which experts say includes many items House Republicans demanded, Johnson and much of his House GOP conference immediately rejected it, largely in response to Donald Trump’s direction. The ex-president has made clear he wants to keep Congress from improving the situation at the border so he will have an issue to use against President Joe Biden in the November election.
On Monday, the largely right-wing labor union representing U.S. Border Patrol agents and staff endorsed the Senate border bill, saying it “will drop illegal border crossings nationwide.”
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“The Border Act of 2024 will give U.S. Border Patrol agents authorities codified, in law, that we have not had in the past,” wrote Brandon Judd, President of the National Border Patrol Council, in a statement supporting the Senate border bill. “This will allow us to remove single adults expeditiously and without a lengthy judicial review which historically has required the release of these individuals into the interior of the United States. This alone will drop illegal border crossings nationwide and will allow our agents to get back to detecting and apprehending those who want to cross our borders illegally and evade apprehension. While not perfect, the Border Act of 2024 is a step in the right direction and is far better than the current status quo. This is why the National Border Patrol Council endorses this bill and hopes for its quick passage.”
Judd just last week testified for House Republicans, declaring he believes Dept. of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas should be impeached. And the National Border Patrol Council endorsed Donald Trump for president in 2016 and 2020.
The Senate border bill was crafted by hardcore conservative Republican U.S. Senator Jim Lankford (R-OK), and liberal U.S. Senator Chris Murphy (D-CT). Despite its harsh changes to immigration law, it has the support of Democratic Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and President Joe Biden, who says he will sign it. It also had the support of Republican Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, who has done an “about face,” telling his conference to oppose it.
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The bill includes “$20 billion in emergency funding for federal authorities — including the Homeland Security, Justice and State departments, as well as other agencies — to hire thousands of new Border Patrol agents and asylum officers, increase detention capacity, and invest in technology to combat the smuggling of fentanyl and other narcotics,” The Washington Post reported.
But Monday night Speaker Johnson appeared to mock border patrol agents.
“The Border Patrol union has come out and said the bill is better than the status quo,” Fox News host Laura Ingraham told Speaker Johnson (full interview here). “Does that affect your thinking on this?”
Johnson has repeatedly said the Senate bill is “dead on arrival.”
Suggesting financial interest for border patrol agents, Speaker Johnson told Ingraham, “I think it does have something to do with the pay structure that’s in the bill. I understand they are desperate for measures that will assist.”
The bill does not appear to include pay increases for border patrol agents.
Johnson was sharply criticized.
“Wow,” declared U.S. Rep. Bill Pascrell, Jr. (D-NY), “the republicans are now mocking America’s border patrol officers for the crime of supporting bipartisan border security. A new low.”
The White House also took notice of Speaker Johnson’s remarks.
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“In case you were wondering how desperate @SpeakerJohnson is to delay border security for political purposes,” wrote White House Deputy Press Secretary and Senior Communications Adviser Andrew Bates. He also quoted a Newsweek article: “Speaker Mike Johnson sparked laughter from Fox News host Laura Ingraham after suggesting the National Border Patrol Council had come out in support of a major bipartisan immigration and asylum bill because it could result in a pay rise for their members.”
Watch below or at this link.