Over a dozen Democrats in the House of Representatives joined House Republicans on Wednesday, January 17, to formally rebuke President Joe Biden and his administration over the utter disaster at the border and the Biden border policies they argue led to that disaster. Though largely symbolic, the move shows the increasing unpopularity of Biden’s border policy among Republicans and some Democrats.
The fourteen Democrats who supported the non-binding resolution were Reps. Colin Allred (Texas), Yadira Caraveo (Colo.), Angie Craig (Minn.), Henry Cuellar (Texas), Donald Davis (N.C.), Jared Golden (Maine), Vicente Gonzalez (Texas), Greg Landsman (Ohio), Susie Lee (Nev.), Jared Moskowitz (Fla.), Wiley Nickel (N.C.), Mary Peltola (Alaska), Marie Gluesenkamp Perez (Wash.), and Eric Sorensen (Ill.).
The opening of the resolution noted that it was “Denouncing the Biden administration’s open-borders policies, condemning the national security and public safety crisis along the southwest border, and urging President Biden to end his administration’s open-borders policies.”
Continuing, the resolution goes on to note the Biden Administration’s failures at the border. One section, for example, notes, “Whereas the total number of illegal aliens encountered along the southwest border during the Biden administration exceeds 7 million; Whereas the Biden administration has released at least 3.3 million of those illegal aliens into the interior of the United States; Whereas, during the Biden administration, more than 1.7 million known illegal alien ‘‘gotaways’’ have successfully evaded U.S. Border Patrol along the southwest border; Whereas, during the Biden administration, an untold number of unknown illegal alien ‘‘gotaways’’ have evaded detection along the southwest border.”
Concluding, the resolution provides “That the House of Representatives— 1 (1) denounces the Biden administration’s open-borders policies; (2) condemns the national security and public safety crisis that President Joe Biden, ‘‘Border Czar’’ Vice President Kamala Harris, Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas, and other Biden administration officials have created along the southwest border; and (3) urges President Biden to end his administration’s open-borders policies.”
Speaking to Fox News Digital about the resolution, Rep. Nathaniel Moran, who spearheaded it, said, “It shows that we’re in lockstep together to make sure that the president has a clear, unified message from the House Republicans and the Senate has a clear, unified message from the House Republicans, that says border security is of utmost consequence for this nation and its national security.”
The move came after Speaker of the House Mike Johnson shot down proposals for “comprehensive” border reform, saying, “It’s a complex issue. I don’t think now is the time for comprehensive immigration reform, because we know how complicated that is.” He continued, “You can’t do that quickly. I do think it’s past time to secure the border. And that’s what H.R. 2 reflects.”
Speaker Johnson then added that he would not discuss Ukraine aid until the border is secured, saying, “Before we even talk about Ukraine, I’m going to tell the president [what] I’m telling all of you, and we’ve told the American people: border, border, border. We have to take care of our own house. We have to secure our own border before we talk about doing anything else.”
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