Steve Scalise

05/20/2024 | Press release | Distributed by Public on 05/20/2024 07:11

House GOP Leadership Statement on the Senate Taking Up Failed Immigration Legislation This Week

House GOP Leadership Statement on the Senate Taking Up Failed Immigration Legislation This Week

May 20, 2024

WASHINGTON, D.C.- Today, Leader Scalise, Speaker Johnson, Whip Emmer, and Chairwoman Stefanik issued the following statement on Senate Majority Leader Schumer's announcement that the Senate will take up failed immigration legislation this week:

"For more than three years now, Congressional Democrats have stood by while the Biden Administration has opened our borders to criminal drug cartels, terrorists, and untold millions of illegal immigrants. Now, Leader Schumer is trying give his vulnerable members cover by bringing a vote on a bill which has already failed once in the Senate because it would actually codify many of the disastrous Biden open border policies that created this crisis in the first place. Should it reach the House, the bill would be dead on arrival.

"Since the beginning of this Congress, the House has passed multiple pieces of bipartisan legislation to secure the border and deport criminal illegal immigrants, including the Laken Riley Act. All of them have been blocked by Schumer and Senate Democrats. The Secure the Border Act (H.R.2), which would end the border catastrophe by resuming construction of the border wall, ending the exploitation of parole, reinstating Remain in Mexico, and ending catch-and-release, has also been collecting dust on Schumer's desk for over a year. If Senate Democrats were actually serious about solving the problem and ending the border catastrophe, they would bring up H.R. 2 and pass it this week."

Background:

  • Additionally, the House recently passed the bipartisan End the Border Catastrophe Act, which includes core components of H.R. 2 - instituting Remain in Mexico, reforming parole and asylum laws, and building the border wall. Five House Democrats supported the legislation.