GOP Leadership To Visit Texas in Effort To Keep Attention on Biden’s Border Crisis

The Speaker of the House, Mike Johnson, is due at Eagle Pass, Texas on Wednesday in a high profile border visit aimed at keeping voters focused on the crisis at the border and President Biden’s inability to stem the record-setting flow of migrants making their way to America.Mr. Johnson’s trip comes ahead of the Senate’s return, where Senate leaders are projecting a commitment to delivering a border security and immigration package in the new year.“While President Biden and Senate Democrats are asleep at the wheel, House Republicans will not cease in demanding transformative, immediate solutions to the madness,” Mr. Johnson said in a statement.Mr. Johnson’s visit comes shortly after Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s visit to Mexico City, where Mr. Blinken and Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas met with Mexican officials.According to the State Department, the American and Mexican officials discussed the “unprecedented irregular migration in the Western Hemisphere” and worked to “identify ways Mexico and the United States will address border security challenges.”Mr. Johnson has been amping up his criticism of the Biden Administration’s handling of the border issue in recent weeks. In mid-December, Mr. Johnson called on the administration to detain all migrants encountered between ports of entry and to reinstate President Trump’s remain in Mexico policy. He also called on Mr. Biden to “renew construction of the border wall.”Ahead of their December holiday, a bipartisan group of senators had been working on negotiating a deal on border security, immigration reform, and aid to Ukraine. However, talks between Democrats and Republicans stalled ahead of the recess. Senator Schumer and Senator McConnell said in a joint statement ahead of the holidays that they remained “committed” to reaching a deal.“Bipartisan border security negotiations are essential to the Senate’s efforts to address critical national security priorities,” the senators said. “Challenging issues remain, but we are committed to addressing needs at the southern border and to helping allies and partners confront serious threats in Israel, Ukraine and the Indo-Pacific.”Senator Graham told CBS’s “Face The Nation that he wanted Mr. Biden and the administration to “accept the idea that we’re full” and to “start deporting people here who should be, you know, deported.”“Then you’ll turn things around pretty quickly,” Mr. Graham said. “To the Biden administration, accept the tools that will change things, and we’ll get money for Ukraine.”According to the year end report from Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the total number of encounters between ports of entry rose to 3.2 million in fiscal year 2023 from 2.8 million in 2022. In November and December of 2023, the border patrol reported about 309,000 encounters and 308,000 encounters respectively. The December flow is the highest level ever recorded in a single month.Mr. Johnson’s visit also coincides with reports of a 6,000 person migrant caravan trekking 1,000 miles from the Southern Mexico border to the American border.The Biden Administration has reportedly pressured Mexico to stop the group of migrants before they reach the American border. Reuters reports that some of the migrants are making the trek with banners reading “exodus from poverty” with migrants coming from a variety of South American and Central American countries. As it stands, it’s not clear if or when the migrant caravan will reach America.Mexico has begun directly repatriating migrants from Venezuela on Friday, sending two planes of Venezuelans from Mexico to Venezuela on Friday and Saturday.

GOP Leadership To Visit Texas in Effort To Keep Attention on Biden’s Border Crisis

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