OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.
Republicans are honing their lines of attack against President Joe Biden, and Democrats have begun to focus more and more on the chaos along the U.S.-Mexico border.
One former Marine-turned-Congressman believes the situation that the current commander-in-chief created along the border after he reversed nearly all of President Donald Trump’s immigration and border security policies on his first day in office will ultimately be Biden’s undoing in next year’s election.
For months, several Republicans have been pressing the Democrat-controlled Senate and Biden to pass and sign, respectively, H.R. 2, “Secure the Border Act,” which calls for immediate resumption of constructing Trump’s border wall, supply Border Patrol agents with more resources, and invest in new border security technologies.
“The Senate has literally sat on it,” Rep. Rich McCormick (R-Ga.) said on the Just the News, No NoiseTV show. “The president has sat on it. The president has no intention of making this in to law. As a matter of fact, to the point where they say ‘we’re not even going to combine it with other things that we want because we don’t want any compromise in securing our border.'”
“This comes at a great political cost to him, and he is going to lose the election on this single issue if nothing else,” said McCormick, who is a Marine combat veteran and was an emergency room doctor before he was elected to Congress.
Just the News noted further:
According to data released by U.S. Customs and Border Protection in October, there have been a total of 736 terrorist suspects stopped at the border in fiscal year 2023, part of the 3.2 million people who have attempted to enter the country illegally.
A poll earlier this month found a whopping 79% of Americans believe the situation at southern border is either an “emergency” or a “major problem.” According to a poll conducted by Monmouth University last week, 69% of those surveyed said they disapproved of Biden’s job when it comes to immigration.
Former Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Mark Morgan said that GOP members of Congress have never been in a stronger position for border security and they cannot compromise now.
“Right now we have our own war that we’re fighting,” Morgan told the TV show. “I use that word intentionally: war. We’re fighting it on our own borders, and the cartels are our enemy.”
Another Republican, Rep. Eli Crane of Arizona, said he thinks House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) should hold out for H.R. 2 in any upcoming budget deal.
“I’m the type of guy that believes that we could get a lot more than we normally get if we actually were willing to stand and fight,” Crane told Just the News’ John Solomon. “I don’t usually see that from the Republican Party. It’s one of my many, many frustrations. It’s not that there’s not plenty of good people in the party. I think that there’s just this attitude that we have to continually capitulate and kick the can down the road.”
Last month, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) got some good news in the form of a new survey regarding her push to impeach Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas after he has failed for years to staunch the flow of illegal immigration into the country, as well as illicit fentanyl.
“By a margin of 55%-33%, likely voters want the Homeland Security secretary out. The margin is even wider for those who feel he’s bad at his job of protecting the border and stopping illegal crossers, deadly drugs, and child traffickers, 64%-29%,” the Washington Examiner reported on Wednesday, citing a new Rasmussen Reports poll.
In remarks to the outlet, the Georgia Republican said the results prove that not only do voters support her push to impeach Mayorkas, but they also want the GOP-controlled House to stop slow-walking the proceedings.
“Republicans were elected to a House majority because the American people are sick and tired of no one in Washington being held accountable for destroying our country,” she said.