The bill is in separate legislation to the foreign aid funding for Ukraine and Israel. The House is expected to vote on it later this week.
Leaders in the GOP-controlled House of Representatives have introduced a new border security bill to help appease Republicans who feel betrayed after Speaker Mike Johnson’s (R-La.) foreign aid packages excluded stricter measures to battle the growing illegal immigration crisis at the southern Border.
According to Mr. Johnson, the border security bill is moving separately to the funding measures for Ukraine, Israel, and Taiwan, and is an “aggressive” measure instrumental to the broader conversation about national security.
Legislation known as H.R. 2 was initially passed in the House last May and aimed to limit asylum, start the process of building more extensive border fortifications, and limit other pathways for legal migration, among other measures. However, it has not passed the Senate.
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Mr. Johnson says the new bill, the “End the Border Catastrophe Act,” is based on H.R. 2 and outlines many of the same policies.
“We’re gonna put the key elements of H.R. 2, which is our legislation that House Republicans passed over a year ago; it’s been sitting on Chuck Schumer’s desk collecting dust as they mock it,” he said.
“We’re gonna reintroduce that, end catch and release, reinstate ‘Remain in Mexico,’ fix the broken asylum process, fix the broken parole process (it’s been abused), rebuild portions of the wall.”
Some House Republicans Critical of Speaker
The move has received criticism from some of Mr. Johnson’s peers in the House, who are concerned that because the foreign aid funding and border laws are separate, only the funding packages will be passed in the Democrat-majority Senate, while the border laws will be dead on arrival.
“It’s a theatrics, shiny object; it’s the shiny object for Republicans that are saying, ‘We got to do something for the border,’” Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) said to the media following the bill’s unveiling.
Rep. Bob Good (R-Va.), the chair of the House Freedom Caucus, called it “a joke,” “pretend,” and “theater.”
The White House has already announced its support for the packages, with President Joe Biden saying he would “sign this into law immediately to send a message to the world: ‘We stand with our friends, and we won’t let Iran or Russia succeed.’
“The House must pass the package this week and the Senate should quickly follow,” he said.
President Biden did not specifically state his stance on the proposed border bill.
“If the speaker will do the right thing and allow the House to have an up or down vote on the national security bill, I believe that there are a reasonable number of Democrats who would not want to see the speaker fall,” Mr. Jeffries said.
Joseph Lord contributed to this Report.
Original News Source Link – Epoch Times
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