Senate Immigration Bill ‘Dead on Arrival’: House Statement

House Republican leaders released a statement on the Senate’s immigration bill.

Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA), Majority Whip Tom Emmer (R-MN), Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-LA), and Chairwoman Elise Stefanik (R-NY) wrote, “House Republicans oppose the Senate immigration bill because it fails in every policy area needed to secure our border and would actually incentivize more illegal immigration.

“Among its many flaws, the bill expands work authorizations for illegal aliens while failing to include critical asylum reforms. Even worse, its language allowing illegals to be ‘released from physical custody’ would effectively endorse the Biden ‘catch and release’ policy.

“The so-called ‘shutdown’ authority in the bill is anything but, riddled with loopholes that grant far too much discretionary authority to Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas – who has proven he will exploit every measure possible, in defiance of the law, to keep the border open.

“The bill also fails to adequately stop the President’s abuse of parole authority and provides for taxpayer funds to fly and house illegal immigrants in hotels through the FEMA Shelter and Services Program.”

“Because President Biden has refused to utilize his broad executive authority to end the border catastrophe that he has created, the House led nine months ago with the passage of the Secure the Border Act (H.R. 2),” the Republicans wrote. “That bill contains the necessary components to actually stem the flow of illegals and end the present crisis. The Senate must take it up immediately.”

The Republican leaders emphasized that “America’s sovereignty is at stake,” noting, “Any consideration of this Senate bill in its current form is a waste of time. It is DEAD on arrival in the House. We encourage the U.S. Senate to reject it.”

The statement comes in response to a Senate bill proposing to allocate $650 million for the continuation of the border wall at the United States-Mexico border, while simultaneously earmarking $48 billion in taxpayer funds to Ukraine.

According to Sen. James Lankford’s (R-OK) office, the bill allocates nearly $50 billion to support Ukraine’s border defense efforts. In contrast, only $650 million is designated “to build and reinforce miles and miles of new border wall,” a figure that may cover only a limited stretch of the border.