House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) will lead a delegation of 60 Republican lawmakers to Eagle Pass, Texas, on Jan. 3, highlighting the illegal immigration crisis that has overwhelmed the Customs and Border Protection service, flooding both border communities and major cities with as many as 12,000 people a day entering the country unlawfully.
The visit comes amid negotiations between the House and Senate over approval of a $106 billion supplemental request from President Joe Biden, which includes $45 billion for Ukraine and $14 billion for Israel.
Mr. Johnson informed the Senate in December that House Republicans would not approve additional military aid for Ukraine until that chamber approved the provisions of H.R. 2, the Seucure the Border Act, which the House passed nearly a year ago.
The speaker urged President Biden to take executive action to address the border crisis in a Dec. 21 letter.
“The wide-open border has caused unspeakable human tragedy for migrants and certainly for our own citizens,” Mr. Johnson wrote.
“Local communities have been devastated and terrorists and dangerous criminals have entered illegally and dispersed across our country. We are now more vulnerable to a terrorist attack on our homeland than ever.”
Mr. Johnson called on the president to take immediate executive action, including putting an end to the “catch-and-release” policy and either deporting or detaining those crossing the border illegally, reinstating the Remain in Mexico policy instituted during the Trump administration, and resuming construction of the border wall.
One week later, Mr. Johnson reacted to discussions between Secretaries Alejandro Mayorkas and Antony Blinken and Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador concerning amnesty for illegal immigrants.
“The United States must focus on policies that deter—not attract—people attempting to come here illegally, and the smugglers who profit from the catastrophe at our border,” Mr. Johnson wrote on Dec. 28. “This development further demonstrates the Administration has no real intention of solving the humanitarian disaster and immediate national security crisis their policies have created.”
Customs and Border Protection (CBP) reported a record of some 302,000 encounters with illegal immigrants in December, a number larger than the population of Newark, N.J.
In November, 12,000 unaccompanied minors entered the country illegally, according to CBP reports.
Eagle Pass lies within the Del Rio sector of the U.S. border, which includes a 245-mile stretch of the Rio Grande River and Lake Amistad. The surrounding area is mostly farm and ranch land. More than 71,000 immigrant contacts were reported in the sector for December.
The White House responded to news of the congressional visit to Eagle Pass on Jan. 3, accusing Republicans of undermining President Biden’s attempts to secure the border.
“After voting in 2023 to eliminate over 2,000 Border Patrol agents and erode our capacity to seize fentanyl, House Republicans left Washington in mid-December even as President Biden and Republicans and Democrats in the Senate remained to forge ahead on a bipartisan agreement,” White House spokesperson Andrew Bates said in a statement via email.
“On Day One, President Biden proposed a comprehensive immigration reform plan and followed up by delivering record border security funding every single year of his term,” Mr. Bates added.
