Fifty-nine House Democrats joined Republicans to pass a bill to deport illegal immigrants caught driving under the influence on Thursday.
The measure passed 274-150 with mainly GOP votes. One hundred fifty Democrats voted against it.
“In the United States, someone dies in a crash with an impaired driver every 45 minutes. I lost two of my young newlywed constituents to an illegal immigrant driving under the influence of alcohol,” Rep. Barry Moore, R-Ala., who introduced the bill, told Fox News Digital.
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Rep. Barry Moore introduced the legislation that passed on Thursday. (AP Photo/Christian Chavez | Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)
The bill would make people who were charged with a DUI and are in the U.S. illegally automatically eligible for deportation and permanently inadmissible.
Just last month, an undocumented migrant from El Salvador who had been deported four times was accused of killing a mother and son in a car crash that police said involved alcohol.
Republicans have long pushed for stricter immigration and border security measures, but the issues have taken on a particular urgency this year as polls show likely 2024 voters being increasingly concerned about the state of both.
President Biden has recently ramped up his rhetoric on the border as well, recently pledging to “shut” the U.S.-Mexico border if granted the ability in legislation that Senate and White House negotiators are currently working toward.
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Jose Guadalupe Menjivar-Alas, an illegal immigrant from El Salvador, is accused of being involved in a car crash that killed a mother and son. Police said alcohol was involved. (Broomfield Police Department)
Meanwhile, Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., has made the border a central focus of his since taking the gavel in October. He led a delegation of more than 60 House Republicans to Eagle Pass, Texas, and has repeatedly hammered Biden over policies Johnson said have fueled the migrant crisis.
House GOP leaders are also expected to hold a chamber-wide vote on impeaching Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, who has been involved in the Senate-White House talks over the border.
The White House and its allies have accused Republicans of playing politics with the border and insisted that the crisis must be fixed by Johnson approving more funding and authority for the president.
MAYORKAS BLAMES MEXICO, CONGRESS FOR HISTORIC BORDER SURGE; CALLS FOR MORE FUNDING AND ‘REFORM’
House Speaker Mike Johnson stands with Republican members of Congress, Jan. 3, 2024, in Eagle Pass, Texas. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)
“They don’t want to solve the problem, they want to keep the problem going as a campaign issue,” Rep. Jerry Nadler, D-N.Y., said during debate of the DUI bill. “So don’t come up here and talk about the problems on the southern border if you won’t give the president any means to deal with it.”
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Moore argued, “They made it a campaign issue when Biden came in on day one.” He accused Biden of fueling the border crisis by repealing Trump administration policies like Remain In Mexico.
“Biden has every tool in the tool box to shut the southern border down… we don’t need more money, we need to apply the laws that are on the books,” Moore said.
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