It’s not exactly a secret that House Republicans are desperate to focus on the U.S./Mexico border, but last week, the White House took steps to “flip the script” on its GOP critics and make the case that Republicans bear at least some responsibility for the systemic troubles.
House Speaker Mike Johnson’s office was apparently unimpressed. Congress’ top GOP leader issued a memo to news organizations, accusing President Joe Biden and his team of launching “a desperate attempt to shift blame.”
This week, the Louisiana congressman’s office, apropos of nothing, issued a second memo, effectively reiterating the first one, issued six days earlier. Fox News reported:
Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., is hitting back at the White House for trying to pin the migrant crisis at the border on House Republicans. Johnson’s office put together a new memo on Tuesday morning detailing 64 actions taken by the Biden administration and illegal immigration milestones that the GOP argues have made the border situation worse since President Biden took office.
The fact that the House speaker’s office felt the need to issue two memos on the same subject in six days suggests Team Biden struck a nerve with its pushback.
To briefly recap, immigration policy can be incredibly complex, but the basic elements of the White House’s message are straightforward. Ahead of the House’s GOP visit to Texas last week, Team Biden presented a case built on a few basic details: (1) The president has backed a funding package that would invest in new border officials and improved border technology, but Republicans have so far rejected it; (2) Biden unveiled a comprehensive immigration reform blueprint three years ago that the GOP ignored; and (3) House Republicans endorsed spending cuts that would’ve significantly weakened Border Patrol.
“Actions speak louder than words,” White House spokesperson Andrew Bates said in a written statement. “House Republicans’ anti-border security record is defined by attempting to cut Customs and Border Protection personnel, opposing President Biden’s record-breaking border security funding, and refusing to take up the President’s supplemental funding request.”
To be sure, there’s plenty of room for debate about the efficacy of the administration’s border policies, and when it comes to overhauling the existing system, it’s fair to say that the status quo has few admirers.
But Johnson’s multiple memos notwithstanding, the White House’s case has merit. The proposed supplemental funding package really does include significant new investments that would likely make a difference at the border. What’s more, Biden really did endorse a compromise immigration framework — which largely mirrored the plans backed by Barack Obama and George W. Bush during their respective terms — that GOP lawmakers ignored.
As for White House claims about Republicans supporting budget cuts that would’ve undermined Border Patrol, it was just last year when the House GOP majority launched a debt ceiling crisis, and as part of their gambit, the party passed something called the “Limit, Save, Grow Act” that would’ve lowered funding for federal agencies to 2022 levels. The Department of Homeland Security and the Office of Management and Budget did analyses and found that these budget cuts, if applied, would lead to more than 2,000 layoffs for border personnel.
Republicans didn’t specifically try to cut those positions, but that would’ve been the consequence if the GOP’s spending cuts were implemented as designed.
I can appreciate why Republicans aren’t eager to brag about their plan now, but perhaps they should’ve thought of that before passing their far-right “Limit, Save, Grow Act.” Johnson can keep issuing memos if he’d like, but these details won’t change.
