Biden launches preemptive strikes on GOP as border crisis is expected to deepen

The White House is going on offense as immigration takes center stage in American politics.

Title 42 ends next week at the southern border, and House Republicans have dropped the Secure the Border Act to push the issue in Washington.

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With each of those at play, the Biden administration is using a familiar tactic in pointing the finger back at the GOP.

“The president has long said — and you’ve heard me say this as well — and he said this many, many times: Don’t tell me what you value. Show me your budget, and I’ll tell you what you value,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre added to reporters at Wednesday’s briefing. “Unfortunately, the Republican spending plan shows that they value tax giveaways to the rich more than they value law enforcement who keep our community safe.”

The debt ceiling has dominated Washington headlines in recent days, but illegal immigration and how to handle it will likely take over as the administration again faces one of its most vexing issues.

The 213-page House bill has two stated goals: to secure the border and to combat illegal immigration. The legislation would implement several new policies by forcing the administration to restart border wall construction, hire more Border Patrol agents, and end its “catch-and-release” policies, among other things.

In response, the White House has worked to tie the debt ceiling and immigration together. The administration claims the Republican Limit, Save, Grow Act that would raise the debt ceiling is itself a threat to border security, calling it the “biggest vote to defund law enforcement in American history.”

“They signaled to the whole country that they are willing to give fentanyl-pushing drug cartels a pass, hamstring the Border Patrol, and emaciate the budgets of local and federal law enforcement officers on the front-lines of fighting violent crime,” White House spokesman Andrew Bates said. “They just told every family who’s lost a loved one to fentanyl that tax breaks and profits for Big Pharma are worth letting more deadly drugs into our country.”

The administration is going beyond words as well, sending out 1,500 active-duty troops to the southern border in anticipation of a migration surge once Title 42 lifts. The pandemic-era policy allowed the immediate expulsion of immigrants and is expiring along with the public health emergency on May 11.

The Secure the Border Act faces long odds in the Senate and would likely meet a veto at President Joe Biden’s pen, but it allows Republicans to showcase their wishes on border policy. The White House has also criticized GOPers for refusing to go along with its own immigration reform ideas.

NumbersUSA CEO James Massa said his group supports the act, claiming it will end abuse of parole authority, disincentivize the smuggling and exploitation of children, and mandate the use of E-Verify.

Both the White House and congressional Republicans will look to convince voters that they are the reasonable ones while painting the other side as extremist.

A recent Trafalgar Group poll found that nearly 90% of voters blame the federal government for the border crisis and that more than half have no confidence at all that the government is focused on addressing it.

Lora Ries, a border security expert at the conservative Heritage Foundation, has little confidence in the Biden administration to handle immigration, with or without the additional border troops.

“The troops will just free up agents to process even more illegal aliens to the U.S. because that’s what this administration has directed them to do,” she said. “They admit as much in documents like their most recent proposed asylum rule.”

Ries supports the border security act, which cracks down on asylum fraud, raises the standard for what constitutes credible fear, and, Ries says, effectively moves back to the Trump-era “Remain in Mexico” protocol.

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As for funding, House Freedom Caucus Chairman Scott Perry (R-PA) claims to have spoken to border agents who say they don’t need additional money to secure the border but rather a wholesale shift in federal immigration policy.

“They’re willing and able to do the job,” Perry stated. “They need a president and a secretary of homeland security who will enforce current law.”

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