President Biden called on Congress to send him a border bill, faulting former President Trump for tanking a bipartisan Senate deal that would have marked one of the most significant immigration packages in decades.
“I’m told my predecessor called Republicans in Congress and demanded they block the bill. He feels it would be a political win for me and a political loser for him. It’s not about him or me. It’d be a winner for America,” Biden said.
“We can fight about the border, or we can fix it. I’m ready to fix it. Send me the border bill now!”
Biden’s remarks about the border in his prime-time State of the Union address offered a significant spotlight on a vulnerable issue for the administration that it has often been hesitant to talk about.
But it also spurred some of the most vocal pushback from Republicans during his speech, with Republicans pointing to a Georgia college student whom police say was recently killed by a Venezuelan man who entered the country illegally.
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) yelled out, “It’s about Laken Riley,” and others shouted “say her name.”
The president nodded to her death, saying “Laken Riley, an innocent young woman who was killed by an illegal. To her parents I say my heart goes out to you having lost children myself. I understand.”
But Biden mainly stuck to the legislation, offering a strong defense of a bill that was swiftly rejected by Senate Republican leaders after their initial backing. And House GOP leaders have likewise refused to give the bill any consideration.
And one point Republican boos on the topic sparked a joke from Biden.
“Oh you don’t like that bill?” he quipped.
“I’ll be darned.”
Biden cast the legislation as a “bipartisan bill with the toughest set of border security reforms we’ve ever seen in this country.”
He highlighted a boost of 1,500 border agents, as well as funding the hiring of 100 more immigration judges and 4,300 more asylum officers to speed review of immigration cases that have piled into a years-long backlog. It would also give him new authorities to restrict entry into the country during high levels of border encounters.
“This bill would save lives and bring order to the border,” Biden said.
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