After years of insisting in any other case, the White Home now calls the scenario on the southern border “a disaster.” The administration had usually rejected that phrase, preferring as an alternative to explain the historic inflow of migrants crossing illegally as “a problem.”
However as Philip Wegmann writes via RealClear Wire, that nomenclature is not any extra. In a notable shift, when requested about border crossings, White Home spokesman John Kirby told RealClearPolitics Monday, “The president himself has talked in regards to the reality that there’s a disaster occurring on the border.”
This was a reference to an announcement President Biden made Friday when he stated that his administration had been “negotiating” with Congress for “two months” to “finally address the border crisis.” A change in coverage in addition to rhetoric, the president promised the subsequent day that, if given new powers by Congress, he would “shut down the border proper now.”
Home Speaker Mike Johnson was fast to identify the change in language. “Lastly. It took three years for President Biden to confess there’s a disaster on the southern border,” he instructed RealClearPolitics in an announcement, earlier than including, “It’s not only a disaster, it’s a disaster.”
“Nonetheless, the president claims he has no govt authority to repair the catastrophe he has created,” the speaker continued. “That’s demonstrably unfaithful. He can and will act instantly.”
Home Republicans respect the change in rhetoric.
And as Jackson Richman reports via The Epoch Times, Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) has made clear the place Home Republicans will draw the road on any settlement coping with the border: permitting unlawful crossings.

“Any border ’shutdown’ authority that ALLOWS even one unlawful crossing is a non-starter. Hundreds every day is outrageous. The quantity should be ZERO,” Mr. Johnson wrote on X, previously Twitter, on Jan. 29.
The deal, whose textual content is about to be launched this week, reportedly would allow the president to shut ports of entry if unlawful crossings attain a sure threshold.
One of many negotiators, Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), introduced on Jan. 28 {that a} proposal was nearly prepared.
“This invoice could possibly be able to be on the ground of the US Senate subsequent week,” he stated on CNN, “nevertheless it gained’t be if Republicans determine that they wish to hold this problem unsettled for political functions.”
The White Home known as on Congress to present the president the flexibility to guard the border.
“Till not too long ago, Mr. Johnson advocated for HR2 as a result of, in his view, presidents wanted new authorized authorities to be able to safe the border,” White Home press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre wrote in a memo.
HR2, often known as the Safe the Border Act, was handed by the GOP-controlled Home final 12 months. It will have required a border wall to be accomplished and for asylum seekers to stay in Mexico whereas their claims are thought of, along with different border safety measures. Senate Majority Chief Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) has stated that invoice was useless on arrival within the Democrat-controlled higher chamber.
Mr. Johnson beforehand stated any Senate invoice that doesn’t embrace HR2 can be useless on arrival within the Home.
“If Speaker Johnson continues to consider—as President [Joe] Biden and Republicans and Democrats in Congress do—that we now have an crucial to behave instantly on the border, he ought to give this administration the authority and funding we’re requesting to safe the border,” the memo states.
The memo cited quotes from Mr. Johnson to show that the speaker is being contradictory.
It quotes him as saying in February 2023: “America is probably the most compassionate nation on the earth, however our immigration system is damaged. Reforming that system is a job for Congress, and any balanced legislative method should embrace measures to strengthen border safety.”
It additionally cites Mr. Johnson as writing in a letter to President Biden final month that “statutory reforms designed to revive operational management at our southern border should be enacted.”
Mr. Johnson’s workplace fired again.
“Speaker Johnson has been clear for the reason that day he was handed the gavel that nationwide safety begins at our personal border. The Safe the Border Act would codify this precept into federal legislation, and he continues to strongly urge the Senate and President to help it or related laws,” Raj Shah, Mr. Johnson’s deputy communications chief, instructed The Epoch Occasions on Jan. 29.
“However make no mistake, President Biden pledged on Friday to ‘shut down the border. Nonetheless, with the stroke of a pen, he may start by restoring Stay in Mexico, ending catch and launch, [and] reforming asylum and parole requirements. His refusal locations our nationwide sovereignty at stake.”
Former President Donald Trump, the GOP front-runner within the presidential main, has voiced objections to the upcoming border deal.
“A Border Invoice shouldn’t be essential to cease the tens of millions of individuals, many from jails and psychological establishments positioned everywhere in the World, which might be POURING INTO OUR COUNTRY. It’s an INVASION the likes of which no Nation has ever needed to endure. It’s not sustainable or reasonably priced, and can, underneath Crooked Joe Biden, ONLY GET WORSE,” he wrote on his social media platform, Reality Social.
President Biden has stated he’d signal into legislation a bipartisan border deal.
“What’s been negotiated would—if handed into legislation—be the hardest and fairest set of reforms to safe the border we’ve ever had in our nation,” he stated in a Jan. 26 statement.
“It will give me, as president, a brand new emergency authority to close down the border when it turns into overwhelmed. And if provided that authority, I might use it the day I signal the invoice into legislation.”
Nonetheless, Mr. Johnson stated that President Biden already had govt authority to shut down the border.
“President Biden falsely claimed yesterday that he wants Congress to cross a brand new legislation to permit him to shut the southern border, however he is aware of that’s unfaithful,” he stated on Jan. 25.
“As my letter acknowledged, President Biden can start to safe the border by ending catch-and-release, ceasing exploitation of parole authority, reinstating the Stay in Mexico program, increasing using expedited removing authority, and renewing development of the border wall,” Mr. Johnson stated, citing a letter he despatched the president final 12 months.
The forthcoming deal comes amid a disaster on the southern border, as there have been 785,422 encounters on the southwest border by U.S. Customs and Border Safety (CBP) within the 2024 fiscal 12 months, which began in October 2023, based on the company. In accordance with CBP, there have been nearly 2.48 million encounters within the earlier fiscal 12 months—a rise of 96,725 from fiscal 12 months 2022.
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