Raskin says GOP blocking border deal on ‘orders from Trump’

In a House Oversight and Accountability Committee hearing Wednesday, Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) claimed Republicans are blocking a potential border bill from the Senate on “orders from” former President Trump.

“Rather than joining Democrats and Biden in good faith, bipartisan negotiations to make progress on immigration, they are taking orders from Donald Trump and actively obstructing a bipartisan border deal,” Raskin said.

Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) reportedly said over the weekend he would “absolutely not” accept the package. He signaled that the eventual border deal would be dead on arrival in the House, though Republican senators aren’t too worried about his refusal to pass their bill, The Hill previously reported.

While securing the border is Trump’s signature issue, any bill that is passed by Congress is likely to see pushback from the GOP front-runner.

Trump’s strength and support in the House continues to grow, and several strategists don’t think it’s likely he will bless a deal with the White House during the primary season.

Reaching a deal is a critical mission for Biden, who hopes to unlock more aid for Israel and Ukraine in their respective wars. Strategists told The Hill that any deal has a high chance of Trump campaigning against it, since it’s in Biden’s best interest for it to pass.

At the hearing Wednesday, Raskin criticized Trump and Republicans for hoping for the worst.

“Just as Trump is hoping for an economic downturn in our robust, low unemployment economy, they’re hoping for chaos at the border and trying to stop us from preventing it,” he said.

“These tactics are accompanied by dangerous rhetoric. MAGA Republicans continue to invoke white supremacist, anti-immigration fantasies and conspiracy theories,” he said, adding that it has been nearly a year since he asked his GOP colleagues to join him in condemning the Great Replacement Theory, a white nationalist conspiracy theory that targets people of color, and they continue to “fail to denounce this shameful doctrine.”

“America is not a great country in spite of immigrants. We’re a great country because of immigrants,” Raksin said.

Negotiations are ongoing among members over the critical border deal and foreign aid.