The White House announced that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) would soon have to cut back operations at the southern border due to the Senate’s failure to pass a border bill, which also included billions in aid to Israel, Taiwan, and Ukraine, and that has many including U.S. Sen. Ted Budd, R-NC, and Congressman Dan Bishop, R, NC-08, crying foul.
On Wednesday, the vote on the bill was 49-50. It needed 60 votes to pass.
Fox News reported that Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters since “congressional Republicans are choosing partisan politics over national security, ICE will be forced to reduce operations because of budget shortfalls.”
Bishop posted the definition of extort on X, along with stating “A/k/a, a high Crime and Misdemeanor.”
“No one is buying what the Biden White House is selling,” Budd told Carolina Journal in an emailed statement on the White House’s statement. “The simple truth is that we are in this crisis because President Biden refuses to do his basic Constitutional duty to protect our nation’s borders. The president alone bears sole responsibility for the ongoing crisis at our southern border.”
Budd went on to say that Biden created this crisis with the stroke of a pen, and he can course correct with the stroke of a pen by returning to the policies that worked under President Trump.
Budd, along with US Sen. Thom Tillis, R-NC, were opposed to the Senate bill, which critics argued did more harm than good: codifying catch-and-release, offering expansive work visas for illegal immigrants, and only feigning improved border enforcement.
The Senate voted 67-32 Thursday afternoon to advance a $95.34 billion bill that would keep aid to Israel, Taiwan, and Ukraine but without border security. The vote means the Senate can consider it, but it isn’t certain that there will be enough votes for a final passage.
In a press release issued early Thursday, Budd said that the U.S. must secure its own border first before helping other countries protect theirs.
“The Senate’s initial deal, which fails to solve the current crisis, was then replaced with a bill with zero border provisions at all. This is fundamentally the wrong approach. It’s clear that we need a significant investment in our national defense, which includes support for allies and partners like Israel and Taiwan.”
He concluded that a viable path forward should include proven border security policies in the House-passed H.R. 2.
Last week, North Carolina lawmakers held a press conference calling on Governor Roy Cooper to stand in solidarity with the State of Texas in its fight to secure its border with Mexico amid conflict with the Biden administration on jurisdictional grounds.
All 72 Republicans in the North Carolina House sent a letter to Cooper urging him to halt cooperation with the federal government to place and house illegal immigrants in North Carolina; commit to signing legislation that mandates cooperation with Immigration and Customs Enforcement by local police departments to remove illegal immigrants arrested for crimes; and, deploy National Guardsmen to assist Texas at the southern border.
Cooper, a Democrat, responded when a reporter asked him about the letter after Tuesday’s Council of State meeting.
“It’s pretty clear they do not want to solve the problem at the southern border,” he said. “They want to preserve it as a campaign issue so that they can use it to get elected, that’s pretty clear. They’re not looking for a solution; they’re looking for headlines, and that is disturbing in and of itself.”
He finished by saying that Republicans in the North Carolina House should have used all of their power and authority to convince Republican members of Congress to “take the strongest border deal in a generation that will never be here again.”