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Trumpers in the House don't want to solve immigration.

In case you haven't been paying attention, we have a crisis in Congress.

Back in October, President Biden requested $13.6 billion in emergency funding for border protection, including hiring 1,300 additional Border Patrol agents and 1,600 asylum officers and more funds to counter fentanyl smuggling.¹ Congressional Republicans refused his request.

Additionally, immigration judges face caseloads of more than 4,500 apiece, and Congress refuses to fund the increase for the necessary number of judges to clear cases.²

Biden says he would "shut down the border right now" if given the authorities in the proposal.³ MAGA Republicans are still refusing his request.

Republican House Leader Mike Johnson has accused Biden and Democrats of trying "to turn all the illegals into voters. ... That's why the border's open."⁴ This is a bold face lie, but Johnson and fellow Republicans are refusing to legislate impactful immigration reform bills. Leader Johnson threatened to withhold support to Ukraine unless border security was a part of the deal. However, months later, Johnson is actively stopping bills from being heard.

Republican James Lankford of Oklahoma was charged with negotiating a border security bill⁵ with Democrats and the White House and succeeded in moving it forward, only to be stonewalled by Republican House Leader Mike Johnson. Being a sycophant to Trump, Leader Johnson caved when Trump intervened. Apparently, according to their cult leader, Trump, America does not have a problem at the border that needs addressing at this time:

Though he (former President Trump) had long demanded that Congress "change our old, broken, ridiculous, weak immigration laws," the former president now panned the very idea, saying "a border deal now would be another gift to the radical left Democrats."⁶

Johnson now contends that President Biden must use his executive power to close the border. That can not happen, and speaker Johnson knows this. Otherwise, President Trump, during his four years in office, would have made that happen. An executive order would be challenged as it should be in the courts.

Republican James Lankford of Oklahoma was charged with negotiating a border security bill⁵ with Democrats and the White House and succeeded in moving it forward, only to be stonewalled by Republican House Leader Mike Johnson. Being a sycophant to Trump, Leader Johnson caved when Trump intervened. Apparently, according to their cult leader, Trump, America does not have a problem at the border that needs addressing at this time:

Though he (former President Trump) had long demanded that Congress "change our old, broken, ridiculous, weak immigration laws," the former president now panned the very idea, saying "a border deal now would be another gift to the radical left Democrats."⁶

Johnson now contends that President Biden must use his executive power to close the border. That can not happen, and speaker Johnson knows this. Otherwise, President Trump, during his four years in office, would have made that happen. An executive order would be challenged as it should be in the courts.

(Source: People Power United/Feb 2, 2024).
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SunshineGirl · 36-40, F
A problem with semantics. The expression "illegal immigrant" was invented to disguise racism and xenophobia. When practical solutions to "illegal immigration" are proposed (such as speeding up the asylum system to turn "illegals" into "legals") it turns out that some folk just don't like foreigners full stop 😐
Patriot96 · 56-60, C
@SunshineGirl US welcomes over 1 million imigrants LEGALLY each year. More than any other country
@SunshineGirl Wow.......spot on. ;-) Good to see someone "gets it". The other wordplay semantics is "150,000 in 2023 Encountered at the border". FOX "news" (choke) and the cult pass that off as 150,000 snuck into America...OMFG the sky is gonna fall. Those people are clueless what the word ENCOUNTERED means. It don't mean "snuck in". That would be UNNOTICED..............not ENCOUNTERED. Encountered means ...stopped...caught.....turned back......or are in line for asylum hearings. And that is exactly how it is supposed to work............and always has.
sunsporter1649 · 70-79, M
@SunshineGirl Yup, typical left-wing nut-job marxist bullschiff, everything is racist or xenophobic, don't you get tired of spouting that crap?
SunshineGirl · 36-40, F
@sunsporter1649 The "problem" has been identified as too much illegal immigration. The most obvious solution is to speed up the processing of asylum claims (bearing in mind that asylum seeking is never illegal in international law) so that there are fewer illegal entries. Whereupon the same people who complained about "floods of illegal immigration" now oppose the use of public money to improve the processing of claims. Which, as the OP suggested, indicates that they are not interested in anything other than making political capital out of the misery of others.
SunshineGirl · 36-40, F
@anythingoes477 Exactly the same terminology is used by the conservative government in the UK for migrants seeking to enter mainly from France. The obvious solution would be to redeploy immigration staff to France to assist in starting and processing applications and to provide despearate people with a safer alternative to crossing the English Channel, the busiest shipping lane in the world, in a small inflatable dinghy. Humane and logical, given that around 75% of asylum claims are ultimately successful. But that, according to conservatives, would encourage others 😐