House Republicans Quietly Admit that Congress is Partly Responsible for Fixing the Border

If, by "admit", we mean passing a budget that includes increased resources for border enforcement

After months and months of unnecessary propaganda that border security is solely the purview of the executive branch (at least when a Democrat is president), Congress, including large swaths of Republicans, passively admitted last weekend that Congress does, in fact, have a role to play. I say “unnecessary”, because as I wrote previously, they never had to bring up border security as an active element of legislative negotiations. And yet, last fall, salivating at the prospects of short-term political gain they could exploit on social media through vitriolic bluster, they did just that.

In November 2023, as budget negotiations were underway, and Congress was subject to constant government shutdown deadlines, Republicans decided to try and force the Democrats’ hands by mentioning border security as an ultimatum for further funding for Ukraine in their defense against the invasion of Russia. It’s still unclear whether Democrats actually thought this was a good-faith negotiation or if they recognized a trap into which they could lure the Republicans but, in what seemed like a legitimate surprise to everyone, Democrats went right along with the negotiation.

This resulted in a border security package that seemed comprehensive and effective, and, to top it off, purely bipartisan. Both parties actually got together to try and solve one of the most contentious political and actual problems of our time: managing immigration and border security. But at this point, the extreme MAGA wing of the Republican party, led by Trump, stepped in to shut this crap down. Cooperation? With Democrats? Can’t have that.

So then the propaganda campaign began. For months, MAGA conservative airwaves and social media accounts pounded the table while screaming that Biden alone was responsible for the border “crisis”, and that only he could solve the problem, but he was choosing not to. He could do this on his own, utilizing unilateral executive action, and new legislation wasn’t necessary, they said. Essentially, according to this line of argument, Congress has no value to function when it comes to the border.

I won’t go into all the ways this is wrong, and how the President can’t fund or create housing for migrants or put more border security agents on the payroll or build more of a wall or put drug screening equipment in place or just “shut down” the border on their own. Or, at least, a law-abiding president can’t do any of that. I also won’t go into how Biden is actually expelling migrants at higher rates than Trump and that Trump put into place many of the policies that are currently being executed and that conservative judges have struck down Biden’s attempts at more restrictive policies. That is another article for another day and has already been covered by several media outlets.

But demagoguery doesn’t care about facts or nuance, and Republicans boxed themselves into this corner and settled on this hardline stance. This would be the political bludgeon with which they would pound the heads of the electorate. They wanted to make sure the country knew that Biden alone had the power to stop migrants from crossing, period. And he chose not to, because those very migrants will come over and vote for Democrats, thereby “stealing” the next election.

Back in the real world, a budget had to be passed in order to keep the government open. Even many hardliners know that it is not a political winner to be seen as the party that shuts down the government, so Republicans actively participated in these negotiations, led by Speaker Mike Johnson. Even he is realistic enough to know that some government is better than anarchy, so budgets for all departments got maintained or shored up. And this included some interesting upgrades to border security and migrant management.

As the AP wrote in their account of these negotiations:

To win over support from Republicans, Johnson touted some of the spending increases secured for about 8,000 more detention beds for migrants awaiting their immigration proceedings or removal from the country. That’s about a 24% increase from current levels. Also, GOP leadership highlighted more money to hire about 2,000 Border Patrol agents.

So basically, by voting for this bill, Republicans have admitted that Congress does, in fact, have a role to play in border security. Since Congress is the source of funding of the government, it stands to reason that if more money and people are needed at the border, Congress would have to approve funding of more equipment and personnel so that the executive branch, via the president, can enforce border laws and policies. (Laws are also passed by Congress, by the way).

True, you won’t see this on Fox News or in MAGA social media accounts. It is unlikely that they’ll put their mouths where the federal money is, but as the old saying goes: “watch what they do, not what they say”. And what they are doing is increasing the means by which the president can more effectively enforce border security laws. And not only are they doing this, they are doing it by convincing other Republicans to sign on due to the assumed effect the increased means will have.

In other words, if Republicans didn’t think that Congressional action or new border laws or budgets mattered, and that the border was solely in the hands of the President, as MAGA propaganda is suggesting, there would be no reason to try and persuade them—or potential of them being persuaded—to vote for a spending bill on the grounds that it will help secure the border. Any person that voted for this bill, especially the ones that had to have their support “won over” due to higher border funding, are de facto admitting that the bill will help secure the border. Therefore, Congress does have a role to play in securing the border; therefore, it’s not all on the president to secure the border.

And, therefore, President Biden is not “choosing” to not secure the border. He didn’t—and still doesn’t—have the means to properly secure the border. There is a notable lack of beds and personnel, among other things (court resources, for example). These were addressed in the current budget to some degree, but more has to be done if more effective border security is expected.

It is challenging to counter the emotional demagoguery of immigration and border security. But one way to start could be to just provide a copy of this spending bill, or perhaps just the portion that affects the border, to anyone that claims the border crisis is all Biden’s fault. When you do this, you can confidently claim “Congressional Republicans disagree with you. They’ve admitted otherwise.”