In recent remarks at the White House, President Joe Biden again turned his attention to House Republicans and their own hesitation and refusals amid possibilities of actual action around the southern border about which they’re ostensibly so concerned.
Among the most recent examples is the outright rejection by Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, a Louisiana Republican, of the possibility of getting behind a large funding proposal presented by the president’s team that would expand personnel on a range of federal teams involved in border enforcement. Republicans in the House are demanding action evidently including instead a revival of the so-called remain in Mexico policy that forced asylum-seekers out of the United States amid processing of their cases. Responding to a suggestion that made its way to Fox of a series of expansions to opportunities for immigrants to secure legal status, Johnson again asserted his opposition.
And it doesn’t help that Republicans have also repeatedly lied about the positions and actions taken by the Biden administration. The border is not and has not been “open” in any reasonable understanding of that concept.
“I’ve been clear from the very beginning: The system is broken,” Biden told his listeners. “My first day in office, I sent Congress a comprehensive plan on immigration reform. My friends on the other side have done nothing with that.” Biden added that he was hopeful about prospects in the Senate. “Now, the question is for the Speaker and the House Republicans: Are they ready to act as well? They have to choose whether they want to solve a problem or keep weaponizing the issue to score political points against the President,” the commander-in-chief continued. “I’m ready to solve the problem. I really am. Massive changes — and I mean it sincerely.”
Possibilities of border reform have been effectively linked to prospects of aid for both Ukraine and Israel, meaning Republicans have sought to move forward with the latter only after securing their ambitions around the former. “Before we even talk about Ukraine, I’m going to tell the president [what] I’m telling all of you, and we’ve told the American people: border, border, border,” Johnson recently said to reporters.
