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Post by Newsman on Jan 3, 2024 15:54:44 GMT -5
 ...House Republicans led by Speaker Mike Johnson are headed to the US-Mexico border as immigration concerns return to the fore...(The Guardian) House Republicans head to US-Mexico border to push immigration crackdownThe GOP has made keeping immigrants out of the United States a key plank of their platform, and today, around 60 House Republicans, including speaker Mike Johnson, will visit the border in Texas to make the case for a crackdown. Such trips have become routine for Republican lawmakers throughout Joe Biden’s presidency, and for the party’s presidential contenders, who have been selling voters on various ways to bar asylum seekers and others from the country, but today’s trip comes at a significant moment. The GOP has made passing stricter rules to curb the large numbers of migrants crossing into the country from Mexico its price to support military assistance to Israel and Ukraine, though the latter faces far more opposition on the right than the former. Immigration policy is a famously difficult issue to find agreement on in Washington, but a small bipartisan group of senators has been negotiating for weeks to try to find a deal that will be acceptable to both parties. We’ll see if there’s any news about that today, while we also expect to hear from Johnson at 3.30pm eastern time, when he is scheduled to hold a press conference. |
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Post by Webster on Jan 3, 2024 16:00:16 GMT -5
(The Guardian) Biden administration accuses Republicans of 'anti-border security record'With their visit to Texas’s border with Mexico today, House Republicans and their leader Mike Johnson are trying to draw attention to the large numbers of migrants making their way into the United States. But in a statement released this morning, White House spokesman Andrew Bates argues it is the GOP, not the Democrats, who are harming security at the US frontier. “Right now, instead of joining the Biden Administration and members of both parties in the Senate to find common ground, Speaker Johnson is continuing to block President Biden’s proposed funding to hire thousands of new Border Patrol agents, hire more asylum officers and immigration judges, provide local communities hosting migrants additional grant funding, and invest in cutting edge technology that is critical to stopping deadly fentanyl from entering our country,” Bates said. Biden in October proposed wide-ranging legislation to assist the militaries of Israel and Ukraine, as well as pay for more border security. In the months since, many House Republicans came out against further aid to Ukraine, while Johnson demanded budget cuts to the IRS tax authority in exchange for approving aid to Israel. The package’s fate now seems linked to Democrats agreeing to immigration policy changes intended to keep migrants out. Bates argued that Biden has “proposed a comprehensive immigration reform plan and followed up by delivering record border security funding every single year of his term,” and attacked Republicans for not considering the legislation he proposed in October. “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,” he said.
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Post by Webster on Jan 3, 2024 16:07:47 GMT -5
(The Guardian) In addition to feuding with the GOP in Congress over border security, the Biden administration has been squabbling with Texas’s Republican governor Greg Abbott over the razor wire he installed at the state’s frontier with Mexico, and now wants the supreme court to decide the matter, the Guardian’s Adam Gabbatt reports: The Biden administration has asked the US supreme court to allow border patrol agents to cut through razor-wire fencing that Texas placed along the US-Mexico border.
In an emergency appeal by the justice department, the solicitor general said that fencing installed by Texas’s Republican governor had actually prevented border agents from detaining migrants at the border, and said federal law allows the government to remove it.
Concertina wire fencing was installed on private property along the Rio Grande by the Texas national guard, as part of the state’s contentious efforts to target undocumented immigrants. Greg Abbott, the Republican Texas governor, has made harsh border policies a hallmark of his administration, and has also sent tens of thousands of migrants by bus to Democrat-run cities.
In October, Texas sued the federal government, alleging that border patrol agents had cut through the wire fencing. State officials placed the fencing on private land in areas typically used by migrants to cross into the US.
The federal government has argued that the agents have had to cut through or move fencing to enforce existing border laws or maintain safety. In December, the fifth US circuit court of appeals ruled in favor of Texas, saying agents could not cut or move the wire unless there was a medical emergency, NBC News reported, prompting the Biden administration to appeal to the supreme court.
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Post by Webster on Jan 3, 2024 16:56:06 GMT -5
(The Guardian) Republican House speaker Mike Johnson is going to talk immigration policy in Texas at 3:30pm, but most of the negotiating over actually changing the rules at the border is happening in the Senate. Punchbowl News reports that the chamber’s Democratic leader Chuck Schumer threw shade at his counterpart in the House while talking to reporters earlier today: Earlier today, Punchbowl reprorted that House Republicans are likely to demand significant changes to any immigration policy compromise senators reach, which could further complicate its passage.
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Post by Webster on Jan 3, 2024 16:57:46 GMT -5
(The Guardian) White House spokeswoman accuses House Republicans of 'obstructing' border securityWhite House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre lobbed another verbal salvo at House Republicans during her briefing this afternoon, saying they were “obstructing” border security improvements by not acting on his proposed legislation. Joe Biden has called on Congress to pass a bill that would give military assistance to Ukraine and Israel and also pay for more security at the southern border, but that legislation has been tied up by Republican opposition to aiding Kyiv, and demands for changes to immigration policy to deter migrants. “He put border security in there, right, because he believes in order to get the work done at the border, we need more resources. (The department of homeland secuirty) needs more resources. Our border patrol agents need more resources. We need more immigration judges. We need more resources to get this done. We need the technology at the border to deal with what’s going on with migrants at the border,” Jean-Pierre said. “House Republicans keep getting in the way of doing the work to deal with what we’re seeing at the border, so, they’re obstructing.”
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Post by Webster on Jan 3, 2024 17:02:27 GMT -5
 House speaker Mike Johnson, right, is briefed by Texas Department of Public Safety chief Steve McCraw, left, today in Eagle Pass, Texas. Photograph: Eric Gay/AP  Members of Congress, bottom, look on as migrants walk near a rail car covered in Concertina wire at the Texas-Mexico border, today in Eagle Pass, Texas. Photograph: Eric Gay/AP |
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Post by Webster on Jan 3, 2024 17:03:21 GMT -5
(The Guardian) Johnson doubles down on demands for immigration policy changes in exchange for military assistanceSpeaking on Texas’s frontier with Mexico, Republican House speaker Mike Johnson insisted that Joe Biden and the Democrats agree to change immigration policy in exchange for their votes for new military assistance to Israel and Ukraine. “If President Biden wants a supplemental spending bill focused on national security, it better begin by defending America’s national security,” Johnson said. Biden has proposed legislation to pay for improved border security and miltiary aid, but the GOP opposes passing it without changes to immigration laws, including forcing asylum seekers to wait outside the country while their cases are considered. “Under President Biden, America has laid out a welcome mat to illegal immigrants, smugglers and cartels. He is responsible for the grave threat to our national security and our nation’s sovereignty that these policies have created. But instead of taking responsibility and providing leadership, this administration has done nothing but attack elected officials who are trying to fix this catastrophe,” Johnson said. The White House has supported negotiations between Democratic and Republican senators to find agreement on some changes to immigration laws in response to the surge in migrants arriving from Mexico. However, House Republicans have said they will probably want changes to any compromise that emerges, and it’s unclear if they will support further aid to Kyiv, which many conservatives oppose. Some Democrats are also hesitant to provide military aid to Israel, citing civilian deaths caused by its invasion of Gaza.
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Post by Webster on Jan 7, 2024 0:55:45 GMT -5
(American Family News) House Speaker Mike Johnson said he didn't learn anything new on his trip this week to the southern border, but witnessing the unfolding tragedy was helpful nonetheless. The trip was Johnson's third to the border, his first as Speaker of the House and this time to lead the largest congressional delegation to make the trip. Sixty-four House Republicans representing 26 states and one U.S. territory joined him at Eagle Pass, Texas, which was remarkably quiet compared to images that have flooded media outlets for months. Government data shows that more than 2 million illegal immigrants crossed the border in 2023, marking a second-straight year to hit that number. According to testimony by Homeland Security Sec. Alejandro Mayorkas, there have been more than 7 million illegal encounters at the border since Joe Biden entered the White House in January of 2021. Johnson suggests Mayorkas is either lying or is in denial. "We know the number is twice that high of those who have actually come through," Johnson said on Washington Watch Thursday. "There have been 1.7 million known 'got-aways' who have evaded capture and entered the country. The number is actually countless because the border is not even being monitored in most places right now." Johnson told show host Tony Perkins that some men from adversarial nations are crossing the border in full military fatigues. As the Republican delegation stood at the border Wednesday, the flow continued with some illegals taunting lawmakers as they walked across shouting their countries of origin. "Venezuela, China and wherever else they're coming from, 170 countries around the globe because the Biden administration has laid out the welcome mat and sent the message loud and clear to everyone everywhere to come on in. There is no border; we don't have one," Johnson said.
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