Washington, DC — Donald Trump opposes any immigration and border agreement. So House Republicans will oppose any immigration and border agreement. That dynamic is both simple and front-and-center today.
As NBC’s Sahil Kapur highlighted from Fox News last night:
“Laura Ingraham says Trump just told her he opposes the Senate immigration deal and wants Mike Johnson to oppose it too, doesn’t think it’s needed to secure the border.
‘President Trump is not wrong,’ Johnson responds. ‘He and I have been talking about this pretty frequently.’”
Trump expanded on his opposition to any Senate legislative package in a social media post this morning (see here).
The latest comments only underscore Speaker Johnson’s recent remarks, highlighted via Punchbowl News: “On a House GOP conference call Sunday night, Johnson said Congress can’t solve the crisis at the border until Donald Trump or another Republican is in the White House.”
The following is a statement from Vanessa Cárdenas, Executive Director of America’s Voice:
“It is clear who gives the orders and who takes the orders in the House. Donald Trump is the de facto leader and if he says no deal, there will not be a deal. This is not a policy negotiation, but a loyalty test driven by political dynamics. No additional money for border security, infrastructure or personnel at ports of entry, no money for cities, no modernization of our asylum or immigration systems and no money for Ukraine’s defense against Putin. Nope, Trump wants to keep immigration reform dead and immigration politics alive through the election. House Republicans’ fealty to Trump and the MAGA GOP’s preference for having immigration and the border as a political issue that remains unresolved and unaddressed ensures that the party of ‘no’ will not support any bipartisan agreement.
House Republicans will do Trump’s bidding at any turn and Trump will do anything he can to block funding the fight against Putin or allow Joe Biden or Mitch McConnell to resolve any immigration issues. No matter how much Democrats and the President concede, any agreement is DOA. All of it should be a signal to all Senate Democrats to not sell out core principles of protecting asylum seekers and promoting legality and order at the border to appease the unappeasable.”
