Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) on Tuesday criticized the Senate’s bipartisan border security bill, which is included in a national security supplemental funding package that also provides aid to Ukraine and Israel. “It was supposed to have a border security set of provisions in it. That is not what we got. We got a supplemental funding proposal with immigration provisions. It’s not a border security bill. It doesn’t do anything of the sort,” he told reporters. Following months of negotiations, a bipartisan group of senators on Sunday released the text of the bill, which they hoped would help win Republican support for additional Ukraine funding. Among other provisions in the bill, the border would automatically shut down if the average of daily illegals crossings exceeds 5,000 over the course of the week or if there are more than 8,500 crossings on any given day. It would also make it more difficult for migrants to claim asylum and shift the appeals process from the court system to an internal review board. Additionally, the legislation would award more visas that could put illegals on a pathway to citizenship by creating 250,000 green card-eligible family and employment-based visas over the next five years. “In our view, after careful, thoughtful review of this, we believe that if those provisions were to make law, it might actually make the situation worse,” Speaker Johnson said.
