The Southern Border: A GOP Play Thing
Trump and Speaker Mike Johnson Oppose Bipartisan Southern Border Deal
Republicans opposed supplemental military aid for Ukraine and Israel saying they could not even consider it unless Democrats and President Biden agreed to many GOP border restrictions. Biden said he would negotiate, and Republicans appointed Senator James Lankford of Oklahoma as their negotiator, and he and Senator Schumer worked out a Bipartisan compromise imposing restrictions on the Southern Border, but no legislative language has yet been released.
Before the written agreement could be finished, Trump announced his deep opposition to the Bipartisan compromise. Then other Republicans fell in line behind their leader, and Speaker Mike Johnson, showing his Trumpian fealty, announced that the Bipartisan compromise was Dead on Arrival in the House. Trump, Johnson and McConnell do not want to give President Biden any victory in an election year, or any other year, for that matter. So, after all the GOP trumpeting about the terrible “open border,” they now want to scuttle the Bipartisan compromise even before knowing the details.
But Republicans would not stop there, so the Oklahoma Republican Party censured Senator Lankford for the sin of negotiating a compromise with Democrats.
Apparently Republicans were not really too concerned about illegal immigration across the border. Since Republicans tied the supplemental funding for Ukraine to imposition of stringent conditions on the border, hoping that Democrats would not agree, their horror in seeing a compromise negotiated by a Republican Senator was just too much. And Trump saw this as another opportunity to do a favor for his authoritarian buddy Putin by depriving Ukraine of needed ammunition and weapons.
As ABC News reported:
On Saturday, at a campaign rally in Nevada, the Republican presidential front-runner seemed to gloat about his efforts to kill the bill.
"As the leader of our party there is zero chance I will support this horrible open borders betrayal of America. It's not going to happen," Trump said. "I notice a lot of the Senators are trying to say -- respectfully they are blaming it on me, I say that's OK please blame it on me, please, because they were getting ready to pass a very bad bill."
As Trump has become more and more forceful in opposition to the bill, many congressional Republicans have fallen in line behind him -- even though they haven't even seen the bill. Some Republicans have made clear they don't want to give Biden a political win in the run-up to the November election.
Newsweek reported on the border deal break-down and censure of Lankford:
The Oklahoma Republican Party (OKGOP) state committee members passed the resolution during a meeting on Saturday, according to a news release.
The resolution said Lankford, also a Republican, was recently working with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, a Democrat, on "an open-border deal to allow 5,000 illegal immigrants a day to enter and work in the United States."
It said that Lankford "playing fast and loose with Democrats on our border policy not only disenfranchises legal immigrants seeking citizenship, but it also puts the safety and security of Americans in great danger." …
The Oklahoma state committee's resolution said the OKGOP "strongly condemns Sen. James Lankford, if and to the extent that he continues these actions, and calls upon him to cease and desist jeopardizing the security and liberty of the people of Oklahoma and of these United States."
The Guardian had the following to say:
The Senate’s long-running bipartisan negotiations over immigration rule changes meant to curb migrant arrivals on the southern border continue to face road blocks. Joe Biden endorsed the bargaining over the weekend and said he would “shut down the border”, but Republican House speaker Mike Johnson responded by arguing that the president already has the authority to stop migrants from crossing in from Mexico. The White House responded by pointing out all the times in the past Johnson has said the opposite, a war of words that has cast an ominous shadow on the prospects for passage of what the GOP has named as its price to support another round of aid to Ukraine, as well as to Israel.
Trump not wanting any compromise announced his my way or the highway position:
"I do not think we should do a Border Deal, at all, unless we get EVERYTHING needed to shut down the INVASION of Millions & Millions of people," Trump posted on social media this week.
NPR reported on the political stakes for both Trump and Biden:
President Joe Biden is pressing lawmakers to say yes. During a White House meeting this week with congressional leaders that was meant to underscore how desperately Ukraine needs funding, the president said he was ready for a "big deal on the border."
The president has reason to want an agreement. The historic number of migrants who have come to the U.S. border with Mexico during Biden's term is seen as one of the largest political vulnerabilities in his re-election campaign.
During Iowa's Republican caucuses last week, which Trump won, immigration was a top issue. An AP VoteCast survey found about 9 in 10 caucusgoers backed building a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border, with about 7 in 10 expressing strong support for the idea. …
NPR continued noting the deep political division among both Democrats and Republicans:
Democrats in Congress are split on the merits of the Senate package. Progressive and Hispanic lawmakers decry changes that would toughen the process for claiming asylum in the United States. Still, many Democrats say that Johnson's resistance to bipartisan compromise shows that Republicans aren't serious about solving the problems at the border.
"They basically want to make sure that the situation is as chaotic as possible so that they can win elections in November," said Rep. Joaquin Castro, a Texas Democrat. "That is their strategy. It's not a sincere attempt to do something about what's going on at the border."
Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell, meanwhile, has been strongly making the case for the deal. He's told fellow Republicans that the border package, which he insisted be paired with Biden's $110 billion request for war aid for Ukraine, Israel and other national security priorities, is a rare opportunity to get stronger policies through Congress.
Congressional dysfunction mixed with presidential campaign politics makes any prediction of the final result difficult indeed. Biden actually needs a border deal very badly, and Trump seeing that has done all he can to prevent any compromise.