Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) pushed back on a bipartisan Senate border security deal released this week, saying Congress shouldn’t consider it and instead make the issue the center of the 2024 election.
The bipartisan deal overhauls the asylum program, provides funds for thousands of new immigration officers, allows the president to shut down the border on an emergency basis and funds foreign aid priorities abroad.
“Joe Biden is not going to fix a problem that he purposefully created,” Jordan claimed in a Fox Business interview Monday.
He instead urged Congress to withhold federal funds for any immigration processing, effectively closing the U.S. to all migrants without exception.
“One sentence,” he proposed. “No money can be used to process or release into the country any new migrants.”
“Let’s say ‘time out’ and let the American people decide how we want to deal with this in November, when we have President Trump — who actually had control of our border — against President Biden,” Jordan said. “Let the country decide.”
House Republicans have already shut down the bipartisan Senate deal, with Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) dubbing it “dead on arrival” and refusing to give it a vote if it passes the Senate. The bill has been endorsed by both parties’ Senate leaders and President Biden.
Former President Trump has also come out against the deal, claiming that passing it would give Biden and Democrats a political victory before the general election. Democrats have responded by attacking Trump for the comment, saying that he doesn’t really care about the issue.
Biden himself has pushed the onus for immigration reform onto Republicans in a statement Sunday.
“Now, House Republicans have to decide,” Biden said. “Do they want to solve the problem? Or do they want to keep playing politics with the border? I’ve made my decision. I’m ready to solve the problem. I’m ready to secure the border. And so are the American people.”