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House Speaker Mike Johnson emerged from the White House after a meeting Wednesday and rejected President Biden’s bid for some concession on border policy in exchange for more war aid to Ukraine.
Mr. Johnson said the deal the Senate is devising doesn’t go far enough to end the chaos at the border.
“We are insistent that the elements have to be meaningful. The House is ready to act, but the legislation has to solve the problem and that’s the critical point,” Mr. Johnson, Louisiana Republican, told reporters outside the White House.
Mr. Biden appeared to move toward the House Republicans’ position, perhaps out of desperation to send money to Ukraine or from election-year pressure to address the growing border crisis.
“I will do a big deal on the border,” the president said during the Cabinet Room sit-down, according to an account Rep. Jim Himes, Connecticut Democrat, gave to The Associated Press.
Another meeting attendee, Rep. Michael McCaul of Texas, chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee, said Mr. Biden called the border “broken.”
“I’m ready to make significant changes to the border,” he said, according to Mr. McCaul, who spoke to reporters afterward at the Capitol.
The big question is whether Mr. Biden’s “significant changes” satisfy Republicans.
Mr. Johnson met with the president and other House and Senate leaders to discuss Mr. Biden’s long-stalled $110 billion emergency request for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan. The original package also included money to help process the flood of illegal immigrants at the border, which opened the door to Republican demands for stricter border policies to stem the flow.
Mr. Biden and congressional Democrats argue that the emergency spending is crucial to bolster U.S. security at home and abroad. They say it can’t wait any longer.
Mr. Johnson argued that the border must be the “top priority” for Mr. Biden and Congress.
“We understand that there is concern about the safety, security [and] sovereignty of Ukraine, but the American people have those same concerns about our domestic sovereignty and our safety and security,” he said.
House Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer, New York Democrat, painted a much rosier picture when he exited the White House. He said the meeting was “good” and “positive.”
Mr. Schumer said Mr. Biden was willing to make compromises on the border but Ukraine must be a priority in any deal.
“There was a tremendous focus on Ukraine and an understanding that if we don’t come to Ukraine’s aid the consequences around the globe would be nothing short of devastating,” he said.
SEE ALSO: No border security, no funding deal, says Speaker Johnson ahead of meeting with Biden
The roughly $60 billion for Ukraine in the package also met resistance from House Republicans, who questioned how the money would be spent. The U.S. has given $75 billion in aid to Ukraine since the Russian invasion in February 2022.
House Republicans now want significant changes to Mr. Biden’s immigration policies in exchange for sending aid to Ukraine and Israel, which is at war with Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
Immigration and the wars abroad are top issues for voters in the November elections and a likely rematch of Mr. Biden and former President Donald Trump, who has made immigration the hallmark of his political movement.
Voters give Mr. Biden poor grades on his border policies. A Monmouth University poll last month found that 70% of voters, including 50% of Democrats, disapproved of his handling of the border.
The southern border has been consumed by chaos since Mr. Biden took office in January 2021. Last month, U.S. Customs and Border Protection reported more than 12,600 migrants were encountered at the southern border in a 24-hour period, the highest single-day total ever recorded. Officials were forced to close rail bridges between Texas and Mexico because of the influx of migrants illegally crossing on freight trains.
At the Capitol on Wednesday, Mr. Johnson said he wanted assurances from Mr. Biden that Ukraine “would not be another Afghanistan.”
He said he would press the president for an endgame strategy for the conflict and accountability measures to ensure U.S. taxpayer dollars are not misspent in Ukraine.
House Republicans have been pushing more stringent policies from their border bill, such as Mr. Trump’s “Remain in Mexico” program, which Mr. Biden ended when he took office.
The House-passed bill, the Secure the Border Act, or H.R. 2, was dead on arrival in the Democratic-led Senate, and the White House called it a nonstarter.
The Senate’s bipartisan border negotiations would allow migrants crossing the border illegally to be eligible for work permits immediately and allow up to 5,000 migrants to cross the border daily before new expulsion powers take effect. Those measures all but doomed the deal and the rest of the spending package in the Republican-led House.
Mr. Johnson said the border deal must include the Remain in Mexico Policy, end catch and release, reform the asylum and parole process, and restart construction of a border wall — all key provisions of the Secure the Border Act.
“Those elements are critically important,” he said. “You can’t choose from among those on a menu and assume that you’re going to solve the problem.”
Senate Republicans are pressing their House colleagues to support whatever border deal emerges from the bipartisan negotiations.
They say it’s a rare opportunity to strike a deal with Democrats thanks to the leverage Republicans have over Ukraine aid.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, Kentucky Republican, warned against letting the opportunity slip away, though House Republicans suggest waiting until after the November election for a potential Republican president.
“If we had a 100% Republican government — president, House, Senate — we probably would not be able to get a single Democratic vote to pass what [Senate Republicans] and the administration are trying to get together,” he said. “This is a unique opportunity to accomplish something in a divided government that wouldn’t be there under a unified front.”
Senate leaders from both parties expressed renewed optimism Wednesday that a deal could be reached as early as next week.
The senators’ something-is-better-than-nothing argument did not sit well with House Republicans.
Conservative hard-liners have threatened to vote against all government funding to force a shutdown if the White House doesn’t make a dramatic change on the border, including ending catch-and-release. Others threaten to oust Mr. Johnson if he accepts a border security deal that conservatives deem too weak.
House Republicans fumed at leaked details of border talks reported by The Washington Times that included allowing up to 5,000 illegal daily crossings before expulsion powers take effect.
Sen. Christopher Murphy of Connecticut, the lead Democrat in the talks, acknowledged that the sole reason they are at the table is the stalled Ukraine aid — not because Democrats want to address the record flow of illegal crossings.
“We are having this conversation now because there is a threat to let Putin conquer Ukraine that we simply cannot live with,” Mr. Murphy said.
Correction: An earlier version of this story misidentified the location inside the White House where the meeting took place. The meeting was in the Cabinet Room.
• Alex Miller can be reached at amiller@washingtontimes.com.
• Jeff Mordock can be reached at jmordock@washingtontimes.com.
• Ramsey Touchberry can be reached at rtouchberry@washingtontimes.com.
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