House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) informed the New York Post that in the year-end funding battles, GOP legislators intend to leverage their influence to halt Democratic cities’ divergence from federal immigration laws.
“Sanctuary cities,” as termed by Democrats, establish areas where federal immigration laws, including those mandating the deportation of undocumented individuals, are not enforced. This deviation from federal law in these cities also fosters safe havens for unauthorized migrants, contributes to an increase in crime against American citizens, and permits employers to reduce wages, raise rents, and marginalize millions of American workers.
Johnson emphasized the GOP’s call to terminate sanctuary city policies, which is prompted by the Democrat’s insistence that taxpayers allocate $5 billion to these cities to cover the expenses they incurred as a result of housing illegal migrants.
He said, “The idea that you would maintain a sanctuary city status and then cry out to the federal government for assistance in what you’ve done is, to me, unconscionable.”
Johnson also took the opportunity to hold President Joe Biden’s pro-migration border chief, Alejandro Mayorkas, responsible for the significant harm inflicted on regular Americans due to the welcoming of a surge of illegal migrants.
Johnson said, “What he has done is just inexcusable because these are policy decisions. His flood is terribly destructive to our country in so many ways. Six million people-plus have been apprehended at the border, and 1.7 million getaways. Fentanyl has just led to an absolute catastrophe; the leading cause of death is overdoses for Americans aged 18-49, human trafficking, enriching the cartels, it goes on and on and on. And all of that traces back to their policy decisions.”
Rep. Mike Johnson Slams DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas Over US Mexico Border Failure
“I'm not sure exactly what you do at the Department of Homeland Security other than great harm. On your watch, the data is pretty clear. We've had record levels of illegal immigration, a rapid… pic.twitter.com/As6Ild8yMe
— Wall Street Apes (@WallStreetApes) October 21, 2023
Up to this point, House Speaker Johnson’s coalition of Republican lawmakers has been making headway as they work to secure the passage of the GOP’s immigration stabilization bill, known as H.R. 2.
The Senate’s traditional Republican leadership has supported modest yet valuable changes to immigration policy due to the populist influence exerted by House Republicans during the end-of-year budget discussions.
Democrats resist substantial alterations, yet they are aware that Secretary Mayorkas’ approach to immigration is jeopardizing the electoral prospects of many Democrats, even in staunchly Democratic states.
Johnson’s influence is further strengthened by recent polls revealing that immigration has become the foremost concern for Republican voters and that a significant majority of swing state voters endorse the construction of a border wall.
From 2021 onward, Mayorkas has leveraged a range of catch-and-release exemptions to admit approximately six million undocumented individuals from the southern regions into the United States, in addition to at least four million legal immigrants and visa workers.
