Republicans in the House, led by Speaker of the House Rep. Mike Johnson (R-La.), continue clamoring for action on the southern border, though members of their own party voted down a bipartisan proposal in the Senate covering that policy area. House Republicans’ proposals so far include a restart to forcing some asylum-seekers to wait outside the United States in potentially dangerous conditions while their cases are processed domestically.
As their more partisan proposals prove a non-starter in an era of divided government when bipartisan cooperation is necessary for action, Republicans are sticking with what’s effectively nothing in terms of new legislation considering their rejection of possibilities for bipartisan deal-making. Donald Trump, the former president-turned-continued front-runner for Republicans’ presidential nod this year, opposed the bipartisan border deal in the Senate that sunk, creating the impression of Republicans across Congress capitulating to the former president in their policy decisions.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre addressed the latest developments in a recent press conference ahead of a trip by President Joe Biden to the border. She put the onus on Republicans. Also fallen by the rhetorical wayside is a $14 billion funding proposal from Biden’s team that would have expanded technology on hand for going after the dangerous drug fentanyl and boosted staffing on border security teams.
“We think that Republicans should get out of the way, not politicize this. This is an issue that the American people — majority of American people care about. And so, what the President is going to do — he’s going to go to the border, as I just mentioned, go to Texas — more specifically, Brownsville — and he’s going to hear directly from the Border Patrol agents. He’s going to see for himself to see what they’ve been doing on the ground. Remember, these Border Patrol agents have been doing everything that they can to secure the border to — with the resources that they have. They need more. They need more,” Jean-Pierre told journalists.
