House Republicans on Thursday passed a major border security package just hours before Title 42 expires.
As Politico reports, the bill contains many conservative priorities including restarting construction on the border wall, expanding e-verify, and placing new limits on asylum seekers.
The legislation also slashes funding for globalist NGOs who often contribute to border lawlessness by aiding human smugglers. Furthermore, it ramps up deportation of illegal aliens and significantly cuts off asylum access according to Axios.
Today’s efforts came after months of negotiation which began back in March. The final vote on the legislation was 219-213, with every single Democrat voting against the bill.
Two Republicans decided to vote against the package despite concerted efforts by House leadership. Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) and Rep John Duarte (R-CA) were the two lawmakers who voted ‘nay.’
Here is Duarte’s reason.
Amidst a humanitarian crisis on our border, we need solutions, not messaging.
I call on my colleagues from both sides of the aisle to work together on a practical fix to our broken immigration system. pic.twitter.com/QLcen6TDi8
— Rep. John Duarte (CA-13) (@RepDuarteCA13) May 11, 2023
Massie opposed the legislation due to e-verify provisions.
National E-verify is a mandate on all Americans in response to a problem the government itself caused by failing to secure our border.
Today I will vote No on the 200+ page package of 8+ bills that contains E-verify.
Solve the real problem; don’t infringe on Americans’ rights.
— Thomas Massie (@RepThomasMassie) May 11, 2023
House Majority Leader Steve Scalise in an interview said he was pleased with how the party hung together.
We all wanted to achieve the same thing, but we started off in very different places.
Today made sense as the right date to do it because more people are focusing on the problem than I’ve seen in a long time. … Here you have Republicans coming together saying there is a way to fix it
House Democrats, of course, had nothing productive to say. Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) whined that Republicans wanted to “weaponize and politicize the border as opposed to doing something meaningful about it.”
While the legislation as currently written will not pass the Senate, this political win gives the GOP leverage. With certain chaos to result from Title 42’s expiration, Republicans can point to a solution and at the same time hammer the Regime for letting Americans suffer.
Indeed, several senators across party lines are focused on addressing the end of Title 42. With mounting pressure, it is plausible we could see an eventual extension of the order with a handful of these conservative priorities in a final piece of legislation.
The lives of Americans are on the line thanks to upcoming invasion. The quicker a solution is reached, the safer we all will be.
This story originally appeared on TheGateWayPundit
