House Republicans remain unbowed in demanding the passage of HR2, the Secure the Border Act passed in May, as Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) recently signaled he would reject a proposed deal containing border measures and funding for Israel and Ukraine. Representative Byron Donalds (R-FL) discussed the bill ahead of the Iowa Caucus on Fox Business's Kudlow, saying the Senate and White House "should not even talk to us about that deal."
The supposed draft of the deal would increase the number of green cards granted to 50,000 per year and allow for migrant expulsions if border crossings exceed 5,000 per day. Work permits would also be issued to those released into the US. However, Senator James Lankford (R-OK), who helped author the bill, said the leak was inaccurate, though Speaker Johnson had already rejected it.
Rep. Donalds similarly called the bill "terrible" and "awful," pointing out that reducing the number of migrants entering the US to 5,000 per day is still 150,000 per month.
"That is a little under half of what Joe Biden is doing right now, and that is a good thing for the country?" asked Rep. Donalds, "We should limit all [emphasis his] entrance into the country so we can at least take stock of the people who are here and then go forward. They just want to cut the number in half and say they did something for the country. It makes no sense at all."
As a result, he said Johnson was correct to reject the deal, calling it "dead on arrival in the House" and that the Senate "should not even talk to us about that deal."
Furthermore, Donalds hinted at previous comments that the Federal government deserves the coming shutdown if it will not secure the border, comparing it to a failing company.
"So if you are dealing with a company that is failing, Larry [Kudlow], you are a smart business mind, why would you give it more money? You tell it to clean up its operations if you want to come back to the piggy bank, but until then, you [have] got to clean up your operations first. You do not deserve more money," Donalds concluded.
