Johnson says deal ‘dead on arrival’ in House.
President Joe Biden on Jan. 26 vowed to use expanded authority to shut down the overwhelmed southern U.S. border should Congress pass a bipartisan deal that ties immigration security measures to Ukraine and Israel aid.
This comes after Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) said Friday the deal would be “dead on arrival” in the U.S. House of Representatives if reports on its terms are true. The terms are yet to be released.
In a statement late Friday, President Biden touted the negotiations between a bipartisan group of lawmakers and his administration on the supplemental funding package.
An alleged leaked draft of the deal, which has been refuted by Republican negotiators, appears to suggest the terms would allow for up to 5,000 illegal immigrants to be released into the country per day, on average over a week, or up to 8,500 in a single day, before border patrol agents must remove them. This is purportedly among other concessions.
President Biden urged Congress to support the package on Friday, saying the terms would be the “toughest and fairest” set of reforms ever to secure the border. The White House did not provide further details on the terms.
A key aspect of the proposed reforms includes granting the president new emergency authority to shut down the border when overwhelmed.
“It would give me, as President, a new emergency authority to shut down the border when it becomes overwhelmed,” President Biden said, according to the White House.
He continued: “And if given that authority, I would use it the day I sign the bill into law.”
‘Dead on Arrival’
Earlier, the House speaker told his colleagues in the Senate that the legislation would not pass in the lower chamber if House Republicans felt that it did not adequately address the issue of record numbers of illegal immigrants crossing into the United States.
“I wanted to provide a brief update regarding the supplemental and the border, since the Senate appears unable to reach any agreement. If rumors about the contents of the draft proposal are true, it would have been dead on arrival in the House anyway,” Mr. Johnson wrote.
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