- “I wanted to provide a brief update regarding the supplemental and the border, since the Senate appears unable to reach any agreement. If the rumors about the contents of the draft proposal are true, it would have been dead on arrival in the House anyway,” Johnson wrote in the letter to his colleagues, a copy of which was obtained by POLITICO.
- Johnson didn’t explicitly rule out taking up a Senate bill, as the bipartisan group of negotiators hope to unveil text next week.
- But following Senate drama this week that shook confidence in negotiations, he repeated a point he’s made frequently in recent weeks: if House Republicans don’t feel like it goes far enough to crack down on the border, it won’t go anywhere in the chamber.
- But Sens. Kyrsten Sinema (I-Ariz.) and James Lankford (R-Okla.), who are negotiating the deal along with Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), said they expect to release the text of the bill early next week.
- Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell spent the week combatting skepticism within his own ranks over the deal, with former President Donald Trump and some of his allies on Capitol Hill working to scuttle an agreement.
- Some Republicans have privately theorized it’s better to wait, so they can use the border as a cudgel against President Joe Biden heading into November.
- A growing number of House Republicans are skeptical of new Ukraine cash, even if it comes with increased border security, and Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) has threatened to try to oust Johnson if he brings it to the floor.
- They passed a sweeping border bill last year that would, among other changes, overhaul the asylum system and restart the construction of the U.S.-Mexico border wall.
- They’ve insisted that any new border deal needs to closely resemble that bill, a nonstarter for Senate Democrats.
Former National Security Leaders Sound the Alarm to Congress in a Letter on Invasion at the Southern Border
- The word invasion was initially viewed as too harsh of a word.
- It might be seen as having military connotations or implying military action.
- Fox News Channel reports on the border every day.
- The cable news network’s reporters are on the border and do live shots as illegal immigrants cross the Rio Grande River and while others simply walk into our country by coming through a section of the border wall. . .
Ten former FBI executives, including some who oversaw intelligence, counterterrorism, criminal, and training operations sent a letter on January 17 to House Speaker Mike Johnson, Senate Leader Chuck Schumer, and the chairmen of the House and Senate committees that deal with U.S. intelligence and homeland security.
- The letter was along the same lines as recent language coming from FBI Director Christopher Wray who said that our country’s security lights are “blinking red” and from Governor Abbott, who has declared the border crisis as an invasion.
- The former officials are particularly worried about the surge of military aged single male illegal aliens coming from countries hostile to the United States.
“In its modern history the U.S. has never suffered an invasion of the homeland and, yet, one is unfolding now,” the FBI luminaries wrote. “Military aged men from across the globe, many from countries or regions not friendly to the United States, are landing in waves on our soil by the thousands – not by splashing ashore from a ship or parachuting from a plane but rather by foot across a border that has been accurately advertised around the world as largely unprotected with ready access granted.
“It would be difficult to overstate the danger represented by the presence inside our borders of what is comparatively a multi-division army of young single adult males from hostile nations and regions whose background, intent, or allegiance is completely unknown,” they added.
- It is a timely subject because the Democrat-controlled Senate is working on legislation that provides funding for the southern border in order to get funding for Ukraine.
- Johnson said Republicans have to hold the line against anything short of a deal that completely closes the border. Senator Ron Johnson agrees.
“This letter from national security leaders is further confirmation of what we already know: President Biden’s open border policies are increasing the risks of terrorist attacks on U.S. soil,” Johnson said. “An unprecedented threat at this scale requires transformational policy changes immediately to secure the border and end the administration’s mass release of illegals into our country.”
Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., a top Republican on the Senate Homeland Security Committee, said the letter captured the reality of the threat from some of the nation’s most experienced law enforcement veterans of protecting the homeland.
- They thought their voices and decades of professional experience would clearly deliver the message.
- It’s not political, it’s coming from their experience in dealing with hostile nations.
- They want attention drawn to the impending threats.
“Any violation of the nation’s immigration laws increases risks, but the surge in numbers of single military-aged males descending upon American cities and towns is alarming and perilous,” they wrote.
“Additionally, they are not just from terror-linked regions, but from China and Russia as well as hostile adversaries of the U.S. with aspirations to devastate national infrastructure.”
- The country is distracted and split over supporting Governor Abbott.
- Red states are sending a clear message to Joe Biden.
- Will he finally listen and start acting?
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