White House blasts Speaker Johnson over Wednesday trip to southern border

The White House criticized House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) Wednesday for leading a group of Republican lawmakers to the southern border as Senate negotiators continue working toward an immigration policy deal.

The Biden administration ended 2023 overseeing a record influx of migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border, with officials recording more than 300,000 encounters in December alone.

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President Joe Biden’s polling on the border, coupled with his desire to secure more funding for Ukraine’s war against Russia, brought him to the immigration negotiating table in December despite heavy pressure from Democrats and immigration activists not to adopt restrictive policies.

Johnson has been leading the charge in the House for Biden to adopt a stricter immigration stance, including his executive authority apart from an immigration deal in Congress. In a statement ahead of his trip on Wednesday, Johnson claimed that “Biden and Senate Democrats are asleep at the wheel” on the issue.

White House deputy press secretary Andrew Bates in turn castigated Johnson Wednesday morning for claiming to care about the border while opposing the president’s request for tens of billions in Ukraine funding, which Republicans are demanding include a set of changes to domestic immigration law. He also accused Republicans of wanting to cut border enforcement in their quest to reduce federal spending.

“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,” Bates wrote. “In fact, right now, instead of joining the Biden Administration and members of both parties in the Senate to find common ground, Speaker Johnson is continuing to block President Biden’s proposed funding to hire thousands of new Border Patrol agents, hire more asylum officers and immigration judges, provide local communities hosting migrants additional grant funding, and invest in cutting edge technology that is critical to stopping deadly fentanyl from entering our country.”

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“Actions speak louder than words. House Republicans’ anti-border security record is defined by attempting to cut Customs and Border Protection personnel, opposing President Biden’s record-breaking border security funding, and refusing to take up the President’s supplemental funding request,” he closed.

Though immigration remains a liability for the president ahead of the 2024 election, Senate Republicans have indicated to the Washington Examiner they will pursue their desired policy reforms, including higher standards to claim asylum and expedited removals from the country, even if it helps Biden secure centrist votes in November.