(DCWatchdog.com) – In a determined rejection of a new leftist push to keep the illegal immigrant invasion going, House Republicans have dismissed the $118 billion border and foreign security bill negotiated in the Senate as a bipartisan deal, describing it as “dead on arrival.”
On Monday, leaders from the House Republican party slammed the draft legislation, which had been unveiled Sunday evening, as favoring the Democrats’ agenda without any decisive measures to stop the illegal immigration crisis at the Southern Border.
The draft border package was blasted in a joint statement by House Speaker Mike Johnson, Majority Leader Steve Scalise, Whip Tom Emmer, and Chairwoman Elise Stefanik, who declared it was “DEAD on arrival in the House.”
They argued the bill contained several “loopholes” that would give Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas too much freedom to act as he sees fit.
The House GOP leaders stressed that Mayorkas already had a track record of exploiting such measures to maintain open borders.
“[The bill is] riddled with loopholes that grant far too much discretionary authority to Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, who has proven he will exploit every measure possible, in defiance of the law, to keep the border open,” they wrote.
Besides $20 billion for the Southern Border, the draft law also provides $60 billion in US military aid to Ukraine, $14 billion to Israel, and $4 billion to Taiwan.
A report by National Review points out that the Republican rejection of the border bill comes just as the House GOP is trying to impeach Mayorkas over the unprecedented level of illegal immigration.
The Border Patrol reported about 2.4 million encounters with illegal immigrants last fiscal year, a record number.
In addition to allowing loopholes for Mayorkas to exploit, the proposed legislation, which has received President Biden’s endorsement, was slammed by the House GOP leaders for not adequately securing the border and potentially encouraging further illegal immigration.
“[The bill] fails in every policy area needed to secure our border and would actually incentivize more illegal immigration,” the GOP leaders declared.
Speaker Johnson separately expressed his disapproval on Tuesday, suggesting the bill was even less effective than anticipated in resolving the border issues attributed to the current administration.
“[It’s] worse than we expected and won’t come close to ending the border catastrophe the President has created,” Johnson wrote.
The legislation demands that the Department of Homeland Security reject all migrants at any entry point if the migrant number averages 5,000 per day over a week.
