Republicans Tout Los Angeles Unrest To Pressure Lawmakers Into Falling In Line on Trump’s ‘One Big Beautiful Bill’

Republicans are seizing on the migration-related unrest at Los Angeles to pressure wavering lawmakers into speeding up passage of President Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act. The legislation — which is hitting major roadblocks on Capitol Hill — would allow the Trump administration to hire thousands of additional ICE agents in order to speed up its mass deportation operation. Beyond pressuring its own lawmakers to fall in line, the GOP is clearly loving the politics of the moment. With cars burning and highways shut down in the heart of Los Angeles, Republicans are enthusiastically trying to keep the troubles plaguing America’s third-largest city in the headlines. At the weekly House Republican leadership press conference on Tuesday morning, reporters were greeted by a large posterboard showing two masked men — one holding a Mexican flag and one holding a Guatemalan flag — standing on top of a car as another vehicle burned in the foreground. “Burning cars, attacking police officers while wearing masks, and waving other countries’ flags — this will not be tolerated,” the chairwoman of the House Republican conference, Congresswoman Lisa McClain, said at the press event. “To the Democrats calling these ‘peaceful protests,’ shame on you.”“The Democrats are the ones responsible for this violence and lawlessness,” she declared. The nightly videos of protesters clashing with law enforcement has generated a new urgency in the Senate to make changes to the One Big Beautiful Bill Act and pass it as soon as possible. The House will then have to vote on the bill again after the Senate finishes fiddling with it. The House majority leader, Congressman Steve Scalise, said at the press conference on Tuesday morning that the bill would provide the administration with critical resources to expand the deportation operation, which has so far fallen short of the White House’s goal of 3,000 removals per day. “Anybody who watched these just inflammatory scenes roll out in Los Angeles over the weekend see one more example why we need to pass the One Big Beautiful Bill, and why we need to get it to President Trump’s desk as soon as possible,” Mr. Scalise said. The congressman highlighted the need to “get more resources” and “get more support” to ICE and Border Patrol for enforcement. “Frankly, it’s one of the reasons that every single Democrat voted no on the bill because they want open borders,” the majority leader said. Speaker Johnson echoed those comments, calling on his Republican colleagues to back the bill because it would allow ICE to hire more enforcement officers. The bill would also provide more money for deportation flights, the construction of new detention centers, and the border wall, among other things.“The One Big Beautiful Bill … delivers much-needed reinforcements,” the speaker told reporters. “In this bill, we have funding to hire a minimum of 10,000 new ICE agents. We’re gonna provide a $10,000 bonus to border patrol and ICE agents on the front lines. We’re gonna include $45 billion to expand ICE detention capacity and $14.4 billion for air and ground transport to carry out at least one million deportations every single year.”It isn’t just congressional leadership trying to use Los Angeles to pressure members to back the bill as soon as possible. At the other end of Pennsylvania Avenue, the White House also is urging Congress to get on board and citing the unrest at Los Angeles as proof positive that its additional spending is essential. Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller — the administration’s most vociferous critic of immigration — has been posting on X for days, telling lawmakers to fall in line. He has especially singled out two critics of the bill — Congressman Thomas Massie and Senator Paul — for not taking deportations seriously enough. “While ICE officers are battling violent mobs in Los Angeles, Rand Paul is trying to cut funding for deportations and border security,” Mr. Miller wrote on Monday, citing comments from Mr. Paul that the administration is asking for too much money on physical barriers for the southern border and immigration enforcement.The current text of the bill calls for more than $100 billion in deportation and immigration enforcement spending, though Mr. Paul says $75 billion is more than enough.

Republicans Tout Los Angeles Unrest To Pressure Lawmakers Into Falling In Line on Trump’s ‘One Big Beautiful Bill’

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