Speaker Johnson Pledges ‘Worse Than Expected’ Senate Border Bill ‘Dead on Arrival’ in House
“I’ve seen enough,” Speaker of the House Mike Johnson (R-LA) declared Sunday night.
Just hours after Senate negotiators unveiled their pro-migration border bill, Johnson pledged the bill would never move through the House.
“This bill is even worse than we expected, and won’t come close to ending the border catastrophe the President has created,” Johnson posted on X. “As the lead Democrat negotiator proclaimed: Under this legislation, ‘the border never closes.’”
I’ve seen enough. This bill is even worse than we expected, and won’t come close to ending the border catastrophe the President has created. As the lead Democrat negotiator proclaimed: Under this legislation, “the border never closes.”
If this bill reaches the House, it will be…
— Speaker Mike Johnson (@SpeakerJohnson) February 5, 2024
Johnson referenced a statement from the lead Democrat negotiator, Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT), who correctly pointed out that “the border never closes” under the bipartisan deal.
Murphy touted a “requirement” in the bill for “the President to funnel asylum claims to the land ports of entry when more than 5,000 people cross a day. The border never closes, but claims must be processed at the ports. This allows for a more a more orderly, humane asylum processing system.”
5/ A requirement the President to funnel asylum claims to the land ports of entry when more than 5,000 people cross a day. The border never closes, but claims must be processed at the ports.
This allows for a more a more orderly, humane asylum processing system.
— Chris Murphy (@ChrisMurphyCT) February 4, 2024
Yet his post is misleading. The threshold to enable the declaration of a new emergency authority is not 5,000 migrant encounters per day, but 8,500. It would take an average of 5,000 migrants crossing per day over seven days to trigger the secretary’s authority to declare an emergency.
And despite Murphy’s claim, the language in the bill reads that the secretary “shall” activate the border authority, not “must.”
Further weakening the language, the president has the authority to waive the declaration for 45 days.
Despite Johnson stating emphatically that the bill will go nowhere in the House, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) is expected to begin pulling procedural triggers Monday to enable votes on the bill this week.
Bradley Jaye is a Capitol Hill Correspondent for Breitbart News. Follow him on X/Twitter at @BradleyAJaye.
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