“Republicans take the job of being a do-nothing Congress very, very seriously and concentrate their efforts on driving divisive messaging while blocking policy solutions.”
Washington, DC — Today, Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) leads 60 House Republicans to the border in another of the GOP’s string of politicized photo ops. Meanwhile, House Republicans are poised to impeach DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, another publicity stunt aimed at election-year politics, which will make agreement on border policies more difficult. GOP Members are making clear the key point we highlighted yesterday – they aren’t interested in making policy or resolving issues of importance to their constituents, only in driving their political message on immigration and the border so they do not have to talk about anything else.
Rep. Tony Gonzales (R-TX) offered the latest reminder that even if agreement was reached on the lopsided and problematic Senate border negotiations, it still wouldn’t be enough for House Republicans. He told Punchbowl News, “Getting to 60 votes in the Senate will be a small miracle. But if that does happen … whatever package comes out of the Senate is going to look different than a package the House would ultimately agree to … This is a different House. This is a completely different animal.’”
The following is a statement from Vanessa Cárdenas, Executive Director of America’s Voice:
“Today a border delegation photo op and presser so they can tape ads for the fall campaign. Next week a border-focused Mayorkas House hearing in the run-up to an impeachment that will go nowhere in the Senate. And throughout, a renewed pledge that even a Senate agreement to potentially codify a host of hardline immigration and asylum policies wouldn’t be enough to satisfy House Republicans nor their party’s probable presidential nominee. House Republicans couldn’t make it any clearer that they’d prefer to have the border and immigration as a political issue to relentlessly hammer than a policy issue to address and resolve. As we careen towards a government shutdown and our allies in Ukraine are facing a renewed onslaught of Russian bombs and missiles, Republicans are saying to the White House, ‘we’re going to impeach your negotiator’ to make sure neither border nor Ukraine issues are resolved.
Republicans take the job of being a do-nothing Congress very, very seriously and concentrate their efforts on driving divisive messaging while blocking policy solutions. Republicans have already filibustered aid to cities and money for managing the border that could help right now and they are openly promising to block any serious effort to modernize an immigration system that everyone recognizes is desperate for reform. It’s all politics and messaging designed to shift blame and distract voters from noticing strong employment and lower inflation numbers. New year, same GOP scare tactics.”
Resources and Background:
- America’s Voice press release, “GOP Views Immigration as Political Issue to Run on Rather than Policy Issue to be Resolved”
- Univision op-ed from Vanessa Cárdenas and Murad Awawdeh, Executive Director of the New York Immigration Coalition, “Las exigencias extremas no resolverán la crisis migratoria,” [“Extreme demands will not solve the migration crisis”]
- America’s Voice memo, “The Politics, Policy, and Public Opinion to Keep in Mind Over the Holidays Re. Capitol Hill Immigration Negotiations”
