House GOP Leadership Releases Blistering Statement Rejecting Border Bill: ‘A Waste of Time’ And ‘DEAD on Arrival’

(AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

Republican leaders in the House of Representatives released a blistering joint statement rejecting the compromise bill on the border crisis and wars in Ukraine and the Middle East being proposed by a bipartisan group of negotiators in the Senate on Monday, insisting that it was “DEAD” upon arrival in the House.

The statement, released by Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA), Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-LA), Majority Whip Tom Emmer (R-MN) and Conference Chair Elise Stefanik (R-NY) reads:

House Republicans oppose the Senate immigration bill because it fails in every policy area needed to secure our border and would actually incentivize more illegal immigration.

Among its many flaws, the bill expands work authorizations for illegal aliens while failing to include critical asylum reforms. Even worse, its language allowing illegals to be ‘released from physical custody’ would effectively endorse the Biden ‘catch and release’ policy.

The so-called “shutdown” authority in the bill is anything but, riddled with loopholes that grant far too much discretionary authority to Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas – who has proven he will exploit every measure possible, in defiance of the law, to keep the border open.

The bill also fails to adequately stop the President’s abuse of parole authority and provides for taxpayer funds to fly and house illegal immigrants in hotels through the FEMA Shelter and Services Program.

Because President Biden has refused to utilize his broad executive authority to end the border catastrophe that he has created, the House led nine months ago with the passage of the Secure the Border Act (H.R. 2). That bill contains the necessary components to actually stem the flow of illegals and end the present crisis. The Senate must take it up immediately.

America’s sovereignty is at stake.

Any consideration of this Senate bill in its current form is a waste of time. It is DEAD on arrival in the House. We encourage the U.S. Senate to reject it.

Their statement follows former president and likely Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump’s denunciation of the legislation earlier in the day.

“Only a fool, or a Radical Left Democrat, would vote for this horrendous Border Bill,” declared Trump. “This Bill is a great gift to the Democrats, and a Death Wish for The Republican Party.”

Senator James Lankford (R-OK), the chief GOP negotiator on the bill, offered an alternative point of view on Fox & Friends Monday morning.

“And it’s amazing to me, if I go back two months ago and say we had a shot under a Democrat president to dramatically increase detention beds, deportation flights, locked down the border, to be able to change the asylum laws, to be able to accelerate the process. No one would have believed it,” argued Lankford. “We have to decide as Republicans, what are we going to actually do about the border, leave it open or actually leave it closed.”