First appearance on Fox: House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana) on Tuesday fired back at Vice President Kamala Harris after she accused Republicans of “playing politics” over the border crisis.
“Vice President Harris had three years to secure our borders and stop the open flow of illegal immigrants into our country,” Johnson told Fox News Digital.
“But when asked about her solution, she recommended that Congress grant large-scale amnesty and spend taxpayer money dealing with more illegal activity rather than stopping it. . Her ‘solution’ is to spend billions more taxpayer dollars and encourage lawlessness and chaos.”
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House Speaker Mike Johnson is going after Vice President Kamala Harris after she accused Republicans of playing border politics. (Getty Images)
In an interview with Harris on CNN on Monday, he urged negotiators working on border security and immigration deals in Congress to focus on “solutions.” Discussing what these solutions might look like, she suggested a “meaningful” path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants and asylum seekers, and to support “the efficient processing of people.” He suggested that they “dedicate resources.”
“This answer from President Biden's 'border czar' is why the administration cannot be trusted to solve the disaster it has caused itself,” Johnson said. “Their idea is to attract millions more aliens, cause more suffering, and further abandon America's national and economic security.”
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Early in the Biden administration, Harris was tasked with finding long-term solutions to the worsening border crisis, particularly the root causes of mass migration from Central America.
But he has not been seen on Capitol Hill in recent weeks with Senate and White House negotiators trying to find a bipartisan compromise.
Venezuelan migrants walk toward a U.S. Border Patrol transit center after crossing the Rio Grande River into the U.S. on January 8, 2024, in Eagle Pass, Texas. (Photo by John Moore/Getty Images)
Harris declined to directly address the status of these talks. But when asked why border security reform has proven to be evasive for Washington over the years, she acknowledged that the immigration system is “broken” and said the Biden administration's first bill to introduce Congress. One of them “includes what we must do to create a border security system,” he said. A path to citizenship, and putting necessary resources at our borders. ”
“But sadly, people on the other side of the aisle are playing politics with this issue,” she says.
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When asked about these solutions, she said, “Solutions include putting resources at the border to do what we can to effectively process people, and actually providing meaningful access to… “This includes enacting enabling laws.”
“My hope is that the ongoing negotiations will lead to solutions that are truly problem-focused,” Harris said.
A U.S. Customs and Border Protection Border Patrol agent approaches a vehicle along the border wall on the U.S.-Mexico border in El Paso, Texas, May 10, 2023. (Patrick T. Fallon/AFP via Getty Images)
Meanwhile, as these talks continue, Prime Minister Johnson and the House Republican Conference have steadfastly pushed for stricter border security measures than would be possible through bipartisan talks in the Senate.
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Johnson has previously advocated for policies similar to HR2, the border bill passed by House Republicans in May, which includes tough asylum restrictions and reimposes Trump-era policies such as Remain in Mexico. It turns out. But Democrats, who control the White House and the Senate, have slammed the bill as a “non-starter.”
More than 300,000 people were encountered at the U.S.-Mexico border last month, an estimated record high.
FOX News Digital has reached out to the Vice President's Office for comment.
