House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) has been privately telling members of the Republican conference that any deal to address the southern border from the Senate will be dead-on-arrival in the House because Congress ‘can’t’ pass a border deal until Donald Trump is in the White House.
According to Punchbowl News, Johnson told the House GOP conference on a call Sunday evening that Congress can’t solve the crisis at the Southern border “until Donald Trump or another Republican is in the White House.”
The Senate border deal discussion is being led by Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and Sen. James Lankford (R-Okla.).
Text of the bill has not been officially released. But, Republicans are already lashing out following an alleged leak of the bill’s text by a political advocacy group over the weekend, according to Newsweek .
House Judiciary Committee Chairman Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) told Bloomberg Television earlier on Sunday that he was confident that Johnson would oppose the Senate proposal.
According to the leaked text, the bill allegedly allows for 5,000 migrants to cross the border per day, grant work permits to the adult children of H-1B visa holders, and automatically grant work permits to undocumented migrants as soon as they are released from custody.
“We’ve got to see the plan, but based on what’s leaked out thus far, there’s no way I’m going to go for that. There’s no way Speaker Johnson’s going to go for that,” Jordan said.
House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.) has also come out in opposition of the Senate bill.
On Sunday’s call Johnson “reiterated that his position is that H.R. 2 is the House Republicans’ negotiating position,” Punchbowl News reports.
H.R.2 is a sweeping anti-immigration bill that imposes limits on asylum eligibility and resume activities to construct a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border, among other far-right policies. It has no chance of passing in the senate
“After congressional Republicans spent years elevating the border crisis, calling it an invasion and rightfully pushing for immediate action, the House Republican position is now basically ‘Let’s wait for Trump’ — even though he may not get elected and definitely couldn’t pass a border bill,” a frustrated Senate GOP aide told Punchbowl news.
