Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas recently traveled to Mexico, seeking help in stemming the massive tide of migrants crossing the southern border. In a recent appearance on Fox News's Hannity, Representative Byron Donalds (R-FL) and former Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Director Tom Homan did not mince words when they said a plan was already in place: The Secure the Border Act (HR2) bill passed by the House in May, yet the Biden Administration and Senate do not want to pass it unless foreign aid is included.
"You have an administration, Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, and everybody else, they do not want to do the simple job of securing the border. And so now when you have a massive catastrophe which they created. Now they are going down to Mexico to see what can be done. The answer is simple: to follow the House Republicans' HR2. It is the plan," said Rep. Donalds, adding that any discussion of Ukraine can come later.
Substitute host Kayleigh McEnany pointed out that Senate Democrats seek to tie border security and foreign aid together, asking what House Republicans will accept.
Rep. Donalds answered that nothing short of HR2 as-is would be acceptable, as House Republicans would not "negotiate against ourselves for some ham-handed deal that gets negotiated in the Senate."
Additionally, Donalds scathingly called Senate negotiations "weak sauce not worth the paper that they are printed on" and do not affect any real change.
"HR2 is the starting point. The Senators can negotiate all they want, but nothing is moving through the House without HR2," Donalds concluded.
The Florida Congressman has been a ferocious critic of the Biden Administration's handling of the border crisis, suggesting in November that the Department of Homeland Security should be defunded if it will not secure the border.
More recently, his colleague Representative Carlos Gimenez (R-FL) suggested the allowance of migrants into the country in such massive numbers is intentional, although Rep. Gimenez could not provide an answer as to why.
