House Speaker criticizes President

US House Speaker Mike Johnson led a delegation of 64 Republican lawmakers to the country’s southwestern border on January 3, seeking to ramp up election-year pressure on President Joe Biden and Democrats to achieve tougher immigration restrictions.

The delegation visited one of the main border cities in Eagle Pass, Texas – where illegal border crossings into the US have increased in recent months – and held a press conference that afternoon.

“Under President Biden, America has rolled out the welcome mat to illegal immigrants, smugglers, and gangs,” Johnson said, stressing that the Democratic president’s immigration policies are failing. “He must be held accountable for the grave threat to our national security and sovereignty that these policies have created.”

US House Speaker Mike Johnson and Republican lawmakers visit Eagle Pass, Texas, January 3, 2024. Photo: NY Post

The latest data shows a record 302,000 migrants crossed the US-Mexico border in December, up nearly 60,000 from 242,416 in November and up 61,000 from 240,998 in October 2023, according to ABC News.

However, the White House announced on January 2 that it would reopen the Eagle Pass port of entry along with three other ports of entry in Arizona and California, citing a decrease in the number of migrants arriving there in recent days.

“This is an eye-opener,” Johnson said. “One thing is absolutely clear: America is at a tipping point with record levels of illegal immigration, and today we saw firsthand the damage and chaos that the border disaster is causing to all of our communities.”

House Speaker Johnson’s trip to Eagle Pass comes as U.S. senators are in delicate negotiations in hopes of reaching a deal on border policies that could open up Senate Republican support for Biden’s $110 billion proposal for Ukraine, Israel and other U.S. security priorities.

But Mr. Johnson, the top Republican in the US House of Representatives, told The Associated Press during a border tour that he was determined to stick to the policies contained in the bill, which House Republicans passed last May without a single Democratic vote.

The bill, known as HR 2, would restore many of the policies pursued by former President Donald Trump, including building more of the border wall and imposing new restrictions on asylum seekers. Democrats have called the provisions “cruel” and “anti-immigrant,” and Biden has vowed to veto the bill.

“If it’s anything like HR 2, we’ll talk about it,” Johnson said of the Senate bill, signaling during the press conference that he could use the deadline for the next round of government funding as further leverage.

Migrants attempt to cross a barbed wire fence in Rio Grande, Texas, US, September 18, 2023. Photo: El Paso Matters

“If President Biden wants a supplemental spending bill focused on national security, it better start by protecting America’s national security,” Johnson said, adding: “First, we want to close the border and secure it.”

Mr. Biden has expressed a willingness to make policy compromises as record numbers of migrants crossing the border pose a growing challenge to his 2024 re-election campaign. Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and White House officials have been involved in the Senate negotiations.

“We have to do something,” Biden told reporters on Tuesday evening. He said Congress should pass his national security proposal because it includes money to manage the flow of migrants. “They have to give me the money I need to secure the border,” Biden said.

The two chambers of the US Congress, including the House of Representatives and the Senate, will reconvene next week .

Minh Duc (According to ABC News, AP)

Source: https://www.nguoiduatin.vn/my-chu-tich-ha-vien-chi-trich-tong-thong-a643825.html