Moderate Democrats Need to Step Up to Block Biden’s Immigration Plans: GOP Reps

The U.S.-Mexico border where the fence becomes a small barbed wire fence, west of Nogales, Ariz., on May 23, 2018. Samira Bouaou/The Epoch Times

Moderate Democratic lawmakers in Congress should join Republicans to block President Joe Biden’s plans to grant amnesty to millions of illegal immigrants, said two GOP House members.

“I think what they’re going to see now is President [Donald] Trump depoliticized the immigration issue,” Rep. Barry Loudermilk (R-Ga.) told Newsmax, adding that some Democratic officials who live in border areas “are seeing that Trump’s plans worked.”

“The walls worked. Having people apply for asylum in Mexico, it worked. Caravans stopped,” Loudermilk stated. “Democrats, especially those along the border, saw, ‘Hey, these policies did work and now they’re going away all of sudden.’ I think it’s going to be a little different this time around with the American people,” he added.

In the same interview with Newsmax, Rep. Greg Steube (R-Fla.) said that with the Senate’s 50-50 split and the fact that Democrats have a slim advantage in the House, it would only take a few centrist Democrats to strike down Biden-led policies regarding immigration.

“I sure hope that there are some moderate Democrats in some of these moderate districts that are willing to stand up to ... the majority,” Steube told the outlet. “But to this point . . . we haven’t seen that.”

He added: “The only way that things like this, and horrible policies like this, get stopped is that some of these moderate Democrats in some of these moderate districts stand up and say, ‘Look, I’m not going to support that, because I’m not going to take that back to my district.’”

It came as Sen. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.) and other Democratic lawmakers introduced Biden’s immigration bill on Thursday. Biden previously said that he wants to “reform our immigration system” and will work with Congress to pass a measure.

“The reason we have not gotten immigration reform over the finish line is not because of a lack of will,” Menendez said in an online news conference. “It is because time and time again we have compromised too much and capitulated too quickly to fringe voices who have refused to accept the humanity and contributions of immigrants to our country.”

But several former Trump administration officials, including former Department of Homeland Security chief Chad Wolf, have expressed concern that a bevy of executive orders and proposals related to border security and immigration will trigger a crisis.

“It didn’t need to occur. It was under control. But again, a number of these policies continue to be very, very concerning. And then, of course, the bill, the legislation that we’re talking about further incentivizes folks with amnesty. They reduce penalties for border crossers,” Wolf told Fox News on Friday.

The Epoch Times has reached out to the White House for comment.