Speaker Johnson: Senate border deal ‘dead on arrival’ in House

Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) said in a Friday letter to his colleagues that Senate legislation addressing the border and aid to Ukraine and other countries would have been “dead on arrival” in the House, if reports about its terms are true.

The letter follows separate signals from House leadership aides and conservatives in the House and Senate that the supplemental package has no future in the House, even if approved by the Senate.

“I wanted to provide a brief update regarding the supplemental and the border, since the Senate appears unable to reach any agreement. If rumors about the contents of the draft proposal are true, it would have been dead on arrival in the House anyway,” Johnson said in a letter to colleagues.

The letter comes as Senate Republicans are searching for an alternative plan on how to get aid to Ukraine across the finish line.

The Ukraine support, which has its own critics in the GOP, was coupled with border talks as a means of securing its passage. But the coupling has actually made it more difficult for the Ukraine support to move forward, due to seemingly intractable policy and political concerns related to the border talks.

Former President Trump’s wins in the Iowa caucuses and New Hampshire primary and his opposition to the border deal is a big part of the problem: Trump sees the package as not going far enough. He’s also said to want to use the border issue against President Biden in November.

Johnson’s message about the bill being “dead on arrival” in the House was also reiterated to Republican chiefs of staff Thursday by House Majority Leader Steve Scalise’s (R-La.) chief of staff.

In his letter, the Speaker turned to the next major action coming from House Republicans that will come in retaliation of border policies: impeachment of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, who Johnson charged has “wilfully ignored and actively undermined our nation’s immigration laws.” A markup of impeachment articles against Mayorkas in the House Homeland Security Committee is scheduled for Tuesday.

“A vote on the floor will be held as soon as possible thereafter,” Johnson said of the impeachment articles, adding that “public opinion polls show the country has overwhelmingly sided with us on this issue.”

The Department of Homeland Security wrote in a memo earlier this month that in trying to impeach Mayorkas, House Republicans are “wasting time on baseless and pointless political attacks” that are “harmful to the Department and its workforce and undercuts vital work across countless national security priorities.”

The Speaker also raised the H.R. 2 Secure the Border Act, which House Republicans passed last year, as containing “the core legislative reforms that are necessary to actually compel the Biden Administration to resolve the border catastrophe.” That bill, which includes restarting the “Remain in Mexico” policy and restarting construction of a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border, has conversely been declared dead on arrival in the Senate.

And he pointed back to his requests of Biden to take executive action to stem the flow of migrants at the border, including by restarting Trump-era policies.

“If [Biden] wants our conference to view him as a good faith negotiator, he can start with the stroke of a pen,” Johnson said.

Johnson reiterated his support for Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) in his feud with the federal government over placement of razor wire along the border. The Supreme Court said the government could remove the razor wire.

“I made clear that we stand with the Texas Governor Greg Abbott in his heroic efforts to protect the citizens of his state and all Americans, and I am emphasizing again today that House Republicans will vigorously oppose any policy proposal from the White House or Senate that would further incentivize illegal aliens to break our laws,” Johnson said.