The GOP’s top leaders and pro-migration advocates are uniting behind popular border reforms while Democrats try to extort concessions with threats of Russian invasions.
“The Administration is continually ignoring the catastrophe at our own border,” House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) said Monday in quick response to the White House’s December 4 claim that the GOP’s demand for popular border reforms will “kneecap Ukraine on the battlefield … [and increase] the likelihood of Russian victories.”
Johnson tweeted:
The Biden Administration has failed to substantively address any of my conference’s legitimate concerns about the lack of a clear strategy in Ukraine, a path to resolving the conflict, or a plan for adequately ensuring accountability for aid provided by American taxpayers. Meanwhile, the Administration is continually ignoring the catastrophe at our own border.
House Republicans have resolved that any national security supplemental package must begin with our own border. We believe both issues can be agreed upon if Senate Democrats and the White House will negotiate reasonably.
The House passed the H.R.2 border stabilization bill, backed by roughly 30 GOP Senators. The bill is intended to block the administration’s policy of sneaking millions of wage-cutting, rent-spiking economic migrants into the United States via expanded asylum and parole loopholes.
RELATED: Migrant Surge in Arizona Cripples Border Patrol Resources
Democrats need a deal because they want $14 billion to help accelerate — and hide — the flow of migrants into U.S. cities. They are also asking for $60 billion to help Ukrainians fight Russian forces after President Joe Biden declined to push for a negotiated settlement.
The Ukraine funding will not pass without a border reform, Sen. James Lankford (R-OK) told ABC’s This Week on Sunday. “We’re going to do this all together,” said Lankford, one of three GOP Senators negotiating with Democrats.
Remarkably, GOP Sen. Lindsey Graham (SC) — the founding member of the 2013 “Gang of Eight” giveaway — is also demanding border policy changes before more funding for Ukraine’s no-compromise war with Russia.
Graham is a loud supporter of the Ukraine war with Russia, but he told CNN on December 3 that “I will not vote for any [military] aid until we secure our own border.” He added, “Reform asylum. Reform parole. It is possible to do. Democrats don’t want to do it. All Republicans want to do it. I’m not helping Ukraine until we help ourselves.”
“There’s more joy in heaven when one sinner repents,” said a sardonic response from Mark Krikorian, director of the Center for Immigration Studies. He continued, telling Breitbart News, “If this is a sign that the Republicans in the Senate are holding the line on important issues, like parole and asylum, that’s a good sign. Hopefully, there’ll be more of it …”
“The thing I’d like to hear [journalists] ask about is legal immigration. That’s where people like Graham and [former Gov. Nikki] Haley are not going to be good. But as long as the discussion is confined to controlling the border, Republicans have pretty much a united front,” Krikorian said.
GOP leaders know that immigration and the economy are the top priorities for the GOP turnout needed to win the November 2024 election. And even if they fail to force border changes, their public demands will create goodwill among distrustful GOP voters.
Democrats, however, are watching their own coalition divide as migrants flood into American communities and displace Americans from jobs, housing, and opportunities. GOP Senators know the Democrats’ divide will only grow during 2024 as millions of migrants are pulled by Democrats into Democrat communities, such as Chicago:
Democrat Senators are feeling the pressure for border reform, and several have indicated they would accept some curbs on the asylum loophole.
But the Democrats’ leadership is pressuring the GOP to fold.
The GOP’s demand for enforcement of U.S. border law is a “partisan” threat to worldwide democracy, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) said in a November 26 letter to the Senate. “We cannot let partisan politics get in the way of defending democracy; that would be playing right into the hands of [Russian President Vladimir] Putin and [Chinese President] Xi [Jinping],” Schumer said in the letter, describing his plans for December.
The Monday standoff comes after a week of furious lobbying by Democrat-aligned pro-migration groups against any concessions on the border. The high-volume lobbying was led by FWD.us, an investors’ group that stands to gain from a greater inflow of foreign consumers, renters, and workers.
“They are holding aid for Israel and Ukraine hostage to changes to the asylum system that would destroy the asylum system,” Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-WA) told CNN on Sunday.
Jayapal, an Indian-born advocate for massive migration into Americans’ workplaces, communities, and society, continued:
We need to put our foot down and say, “No,” … they want to try and trade destruction of the asylum system for aid for Ukraine. That’s just outrageous. We should say “no,” and force them to vote against this critical aid if that’s where they want to be.
Jayapal heads the Democrats’ Progressive Caucus in the House — and is increasingly under pressure because of her excuse-making for Hamas rapists.
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