House Speaker Mike Johnson torpedoed a deal passed in the Senate to reopen the Department of Homeland Security and end the crisis at airports, all while blaming his Republican counterpart in the Senate.
Johnson spoke to reporters on Friday after votes and a protracted phone call with members of the House Republican conference.
“The Republicans are not going to be of any effort to reopen our borders or to stop immigration enforcement,” he told reporters. “We are going to deport dangerous criminal illegal aliens, because it is a basic function of the government. The Democrats fundamentally disagree.”
Early on Friday, the Senate passed by voice vote a bill to fund all of the Department of Homeland Security with the exception of Immigration and Customs Enforcement and border patrol. This came as Democrats had hoped to include some safeguards for ICE and border patrol after the killings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti in Minneapolis by ICE and Customs and Border Protection officers respectively.
But Johnson excoriated the legislation and said he did not believe that Republicans could agreed to such a measure.
“This gambit that was done last night is a joke,” he said. “I’m quite convinced that it can’t be that every Senate Republican read the language of this bill.”
Johnson has instead said that the House will hold a vote on a stopgap spending bill to keep the Department of Homeland Security open until May 22.
But many of the Senators have already left Washington, heading home for the Passsover and Easter recess.
In addition, Johnson stopped short of criticizing Senate Majority Leader John Thune, but also implied that the Republican leader had lost control of the Senate. Rather, he blamed Schumer.
“I wouldn’t call John Thune the engineer of this. Chuck Schumer and the Democrats in the Senate have forced this upon the Senate. I have to protect the House and I have to protect the American people.”
