WASHINGTON – President Biden said Wednesday that he is ready to change course on US-Mexico border policy after House Speaker Mike Johnson confronted him at a White House meeting and accused him of creating a “catastrophe.”
“[Biden] said that ‘I am ready to make significant changes to the border.’ He said it was broken. He knows that it needs to be fixed,” Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Texas), a participant in the meeting, to reporters after that.
One source briefed on the discussions between Biden and 18 members of the House and Senate said that McCaul’s account was accurate, but other sources said it was their understanding that the president was unclear.
While Republicans heard in Biden’s words a revival that could result in a major policy pivot, a White House official told The Post his comments were consistent with the president’s previous statements and shared an example of Biden saying there is a “broken border system.”
The context of Biden’s comments to members of Congress seeking a deal, however, differed from the White House’s typical quote about Biden’s three-year proposal to increase legal immigration and grant amnesty to those already in the US as a way to address “a broken system”, which according to critics will vilify borderline leaps.
The 81-year-old commander-in-chief made the statement amid record-breaking illegal crossings that critics described as his policy.
Johnson (R-La.) told reporters after the meeting that he told Biden in front of him that his actions had caused a national security and humanitarian “catastrophe” and that border policy changes were needed before House Republicans would consider approving $61.4 billion in new military aid to Ukraine.
House Speaker Mike Johnson said he will urge President Biden to secure the US border during talks at the White House on Wednesday before considering $61.4 billion in aid to Ukraine. Getty Images
“I told the president what I’ve been saying for months, and that is that we have to have a change at the border — a substantive policy change,” Johnson said.
“We documented 64 instances where the president took executive action or his agencies took action to create the current catastrophe we have at the border,” the speaker added. “It is a national security and humanitarian catastrophe and I expressed that to the president in the meeting.
“We understand that there are concerns about the safety, security and sovereignty of Ukraine, but the American people have the same concerns about our own domestic sovereignty and our security and our security.”
Johnson said he wants Biden to take steps including restoring former President Donald Trump’s “Stay in Mexico” policy for asylum seekers and ending the practice of immediately releasing the majority of people who cross the border illegally into the US.
“Before we talk about Ukraine, I’ll tell the president what I’ve told all of you and we’ve told the American people: borders, borders, borders,” Johnson told reporters on Capitol Hill. AFP via Getty Images
Both Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and Johnson told reporters there was a general consensus on the issues — with the Democratic leader saying when he returned to the Capitol there was an “overwhelming consensus” that both issues needed to be addressed in additional bill financing.
“There was a significant amount of agreement around the table that we must do Ukraine and we must do the border,” Schumer told reporters on the White House driveway shortly after meeting with Biden.
“There’s a huge focus on Ukraine and an understanding that if we don’t come to Ukraine’s aid that the consequences for America around the world will be very bad and within a year, we’ll be behind us doing all kinds of things that we don’t want to do.”
Schumer added that “the president himself has said repeatedly that he’s ready to move forward [the] border.”
Johnson and other congressional leaders will gather in the Oval Office to discuss the president’s $106 billion national security package for Ukraine, Israel and US border security. AP
Bipartisan supplemental funding negotiations led by senators including Sen. James Lankford (R-Okla.) are making progress, Schumer continued.
“I’m more optimistic than ever that we’ll reach an agreement — I’m putting the chances a little more than half now,” he said.
House Republicans are increasingly skeptical of Biden’s request for new aid to Ukraine, as polls show significant public opposition to new aid beyond the $113 billion already earmarked to counter the Kremlin’s stalled February 2022 invasion.
Johnson has repeatedly accused the Biden administration of ignoring his questions about aid for Ukraine, including about surveillance and the endgame for the nearly two-year war between Kyiv and Moscow.
“What is the final game and strategy in Ukraine? How will we have accountability for those funds?” the speaker told reporters at a morning press conference. “We need to know that Ukraine is not another Afghanistan.”
In a Senate floor speech, McConnell blasted Biden over the “urgent crisis” on the southern border, saying “negotiators are making progress toward the most significant border enhancement in nearly 30 years.” Getty Images
Briefing reporters after meeting with Biden, Johnson said that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky had stressed to him during a December meeting that requests for specialized military equipment were the highest priority.
“He said that the material that was needed was the appropriate weapon system that they needed,” Johnson said. “We need questions answered about strategy, about the end game and about accountability for the precious treasure of the American people.”
Biden in October requested $106 billion in additional funding outside of the regular budget process to fund military support for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan and improve US border security amid a record-breaking surge in illegal crossings.
The proposal includes $61.4 billion for Kyiv’s war effort, $14.3 billion for military aid to Israel to fight Hamas terrorists in Gaza, and $13.6 billion to increase border enforcement.
National Security Council spokesman John Kirby responded to GOP criticism of Ukraine funding before Wednesday’s meeting.
“This idea of a blank check is not true,” Kirby said, referring to House Republicans’ characterization of the US aid package.
He added that the discussion would “bring members of Congress up to speed on what we’re seeing now on the battlefield.”
Schumer blasted the Senate version of the bill from Republicans last November for “making Ukraine funding conditional on right-wing border policies that cannot pass Congress.” Getty Images
In remarks on the Senate floor Wednesday morning, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), a staunch supporter of Ukraine aid, also hit out at Biden over the “urgent crisis” on the southern border, saying “negotiators are making progress toward the most. significant boundaries in almost 30 years.”
McConnell told reporters later that he expected the bill to be voted on next week, urging Republicans toward “a unique opportunity to accomplish something in a divided government that wouldn’t be there under a unified government.”
At the same time, Johnson has drawn criticism from the right wing of his caucus over the $1.66 trillion top-line federal spending deal he struck earlier this month with Schumer, raising fears that hardliners will force a partial government shutdown starting Friday night.
Over the weekend, the House speaker hammered out a leaked draft supplemental bill produced by an immigration-focused conservative group that presented a patchwork solution to the record-breaking migrant crisis at the southern border.
The provision includes an increase in the granting of green cards to 50,000 a year and a threshold for daily migrant deportations of 5,000 if the crossing exceeds that number within seven days.
“What is the final game and strategy in Ukraine? How will we have accountability for those funds?” Johnson asked on Wednesday. “We need to know that Ukraine is not another Afghanistan.” Reuters
Lankford, the chief Republican negotiator on the bill, warned the press and fellow lawmakers “not to believe everything you read on the internet” following the leak.
“We don’t know exactly what the Senate has done because we haven’t seen the text,” Johnson said Wednesday morning, adding that House Republicans will not consider “comprehensive immigration reform” with Democrats in control of both the White House and the Senate.
“You can’t do it quickly,” he told reporters, saying his conference stood firm in support of his border security bill from last year, known as HR 2.
Schumer criticized his Senate counterpart’s version of the legislation presented by Republicans last November for “making Ukraine funding conditional on a right-wing border policy that cannot pass Congress.”
“HR 2 has very important elements: restoring the Remain in Mexico policy; ending arrest and release; asylum program reform, the broken parole process; rebuild the wall,” Johnson said at his press conference before meeting with Biden. “You can’t just pick from the menu and think you’re going to solve the problem.”
“We spoke with the deputy chief of the US Border Patrol, who is a 33-year veteran of the agency,” he said of his recent trip with 64 House GOP lawmakers to Eagle Pass, Texas, the center of the migrant crisis on the southern border. .
The deputy chief, he said, informed them that the Border Patrol was “managing an open hydrant” with “more buckets,” rather than working “to reduce the flow.”
“No one should play politics with this. Too much is at stake. “Fentanyl is the leading cause of death for Americans aged 18 to 49,” added Johnson. “The cartels at the border down there make billions of dollars trafficking people into the US. … The human catastrophe cannot be exaggerated.”
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Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
