Republicans in Congress took to social media to blast a 370-page foreign aid and border security package released by Senate negotiators Sunday.
Democratic Sen. Patty Murray of Washington released the text of the legislation Sunday evening after weeks of negotiation between Democrats and Republican Sen. James Lankford of Oklahoma. Some Republican members of the House of Representatives ripped the legislation, which includes $60 billion in aid for Ukraine and $14 billion in aid for Israel in addition to adding provisions to deal with illegal immigration, saying it does too little to secure the border.
“This Joe Biden/Chuck Schumer Open Border Bill is an absolute non-starter and will further incentivize thousands of illegals to pour in across our borders daily,” Republican Conference Chair Elise Stefanik posted on X. “House Republicans have already passed HR2 – the Secure Our Border Act, which would actually secure the border and return to the effective Trump policies with the most secure border in our nation’s history.”
“Reading through the alleged ‘border security’ package just released. First section is about Ukraine,” Republican Rep. Michael Cloud of Texas posted. “Tells you all you need to know about the absurd priorities underlining this bill.”
Other Republicans called for time to study the lengthy bill.
“It took the Senate months to build a bill,” Republican Rep. Tony Gonzalez of Texas posted. “I GUARANTEE it will take the House months to review EVERY line.”
“No self-respecting senator should agree to vote on this 370-page bill this week,” Republican Sen. Mike Lee of Utah posted. “Any 41 senators can prevent the bill from proceeding. If you agree that senators should have this bill for at least a few weeks (and certainly more than a few days) before voting on it, say so!”
Some provisions of the bill drew immediate criticism from Republicans for still allowing hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants into the United States.
“The Senate Amnesty Bill literally would force President Trump to let in illegals well into his term,” Republican Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida posted. “Any Republican who votes for this is no better than a Democrat!”
“The Senate border ‘deal’ is an unserious attempt to show progress in an election year, when in reality, they bent the knee to Biden’s open-border agenda,” Republican Rep. Eli Crane of Arizona posted.
Republican Senate candidate Kari Lake of Arizona took aim at one of her rivals, Independent Sen. Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona in a post on X.
“Pouring through this DISASTROUS Schumer-Sinema Border Bill,” Lake posted. “Maybe Kyrsten Sinema should run for Senate in Ukraine—her bill sends $60,000,000,000+ to Zelensky and $0 is allocated for a Border Wall. Once again they put America Last. What a disgrace!”
“And each year the Schumer-Sinema Border Bill legalizes nearly 2 million invaders who have breached our border during the Bidenvasion,” Lake added in a follow-up post. “This Bill is DOA. We the People will not sit idly by as crooked politicians make permanent these dangerous/deadly open borders.”
United States Customs and Border Protection (CBP) reported over 302,000 illegal immigrants came across the U.S.-Mexico border in December after nearly 380,000 illegal immigrants have been encountered at the U.S.-Mexico border during the first two months fiscal year 2024, which started Oct. 1, according to data released by the agency. CBP also reported 2,045,838 encounters in fiscal year 2023, 2,206,436 in fiscal year 2022 and 1,659,206 in fiscal year 2021.
Senators Lankford and Murray did not immediately respond to requests for comment from the Daily Caller News Foundation.
Harold Hutchison on February 4, 2024