Today's recap
House Republicans are moving ahead with an impeachment inquiry into homeland security secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, and have scheduled a hearing for next Wednesday. They blame him for the surge in migrants crossing the US border with Mexico, which speaker Mike Johnson addressed today in a speech on the Texas frontier alongside dozens of GOP lawmakers.
Negotiations are continuing behind the scenes on a border security compromise that can win both parties’ approval. Rightwing lawmakers have threatened to vote against government funding if the US border with Mexico isn’t “shut”. Johnson insisted that Joe Biden and the Democrats agree to change immigration policy in exchange for their votes for new military assistance to Israel and Ukraine.
Here’s what else has happened today so far:
Mayorkas said he would cooperate with the impeachment investigation into his alleged dereliction of duty.
The White House said Republicans have an “anti-border security record” for not taking up Joe Biden’s proposals on the issue.
Republican presidential candidates have extreme and potentially illegal ideas for cracking down on border crossers.
Robert F Kennedy Jr has collected enough signatures to qualify for the Utah presidential ballot, making it the first state to give the independent candidate ballot access.
– Chris Stein
Last week, my colleague Lauren Gambino analyzed how the 2024 elections are putting new pressures on Joe Biden and his border policies.
Major changes to US immigration policy that would toughen border enforcement and address an issue that has emerged as one of the president’s biggest political vulnerabilities ahead of a likely rematch against his anti-immigration rival Donald Trump.
But it is also a risk for Biden, who entered the White House in 2021 promising to “restore humanity and American values to our immigration system” after Trump’s four-year crackdown on immigration.
Shortly after being sworn in, Biden set to work unwinding his Republican predecessor’s immigration policies and, at the same time, sent Congress a sprawling legislative proposal that included pathways to citizenship for millions of immigrants living in the US.
That aspirational legislation landed with a resounding thud on Capitol Hill, where Democratic leaders had little appetite for a political scrap over the perennially thorny issue of immigration reform. But the politics of immigration have shifted sharply to the right since then, leaving Democrats – and the president – in a political bind as they negotiate with Republicans over border measures they once denounced.
Exceptionally high levels of migration at the southern border with Mexico – and withering Republican attacks on the president’s response – have vaulted immigration to the fore. A bipartisan group of Senate lawmakers have been engaged in talks with the White House over a border deal that would unlock aid to Ukraine and Israel.
“We all know there’s a problem at the border – the president does, Democrats do,” Chuck Schumer, the Senate majority leader, said before sending senators home for their holiday recess. “Our goal is to get something done as soon as we get back.”
