White House Flips the Script on Border Crisis With House Republicans

(ConservativeSense.com) – The White House has blamed the border crisis on Republicans, saying they have not taken opportunities to tackle it. White House spokesperson Andrew Bates said the GOP’s record involves cutting Customs and Border Protection (CBP) personnel and refusing to pass the president’s funding requests through Congress.

Bates said Republicans voted to eliminate thousands of CBP posts and left Washington in December while the President and Democrat Congress Members “remained to forge ahead on a bipartisan agreement.”

GOP House Speaker Mike Johnson rejected the White House claims, and his spokesman said there is a direct link between Biden administration policy and the leaking southern border, from “his decision to rescind the Remain in Mexico policy to the widespread abuse of the parole and asylum systems.”

Agreement between the two parties on how to tackle the crisis appears difficult to find as talks stall in the Senate regarding a funding package for Israel and Ukraine that Republicans will only support in exchange for more robust migration policies at home.

As the Senate worked through a deal, the GOP-controlled House warned that any agreement it considered too weak on immigration would not pass through the chamber. New York Rep. Nick LaLota said, “We need to do as close to HR 2 as possible,” before adding that a potential agreement suggested in a pre-Christmas briefing was “too weak.”

HR2, or the Secure the Border Act, was passed by House Republicans last summer and contains provisions to construct a border wall, oblige all employers to use E-verify to ensure potential employees have the right to work in the US, and limit parole, among other measures.

Convincing the American public that the GOP is responsible for the border crisis will likely be a tall order for the White House, as polls show little support for Democratic policy. Pew Research in December revealed that only 9% of Americans are very confident that the current administration can “make wise decisions” about immigration.