Speaker Johnson doubles down on support for Texas Gov. Abbott amid border standoff

WASHINGTON (CN) — As Texas squares off with the federal government on border security, House Speaker Mike Johnson told colleagues Friday that congressional Republicans will “vigorously oppose” legislation from the Senate or the Biden administration that they see as incentivizing illegal immigration.

In a letter to the GOP caucus, Johnson reaffirmed his support for Texas Governor Greg Abbott, who has refused to allow U.S. Border Patrol agents to remove razor wire installed along the state’s southern border with Mexico. Abbott’s defiance only intensified this week after the Supreme Court ordered the Lone Star State to give federal agents access to the border.

“I made clear that we stand with Texas Governor Greg Abbott in his heroic efforts to protect the citizens of his state and all Americans,” the speaker wrote, calling Republican opposition to the Biden administration a “fateful battle for our border and our national sovereignty.”

Johnson also informed his colleagues that the House would move forward with a resolution to impeach Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, whose ouster has been demanded for months by GOP lawmakers angry about his oversight of the border.

The House speaker argued that Mayorkas and President Biden “have willfully ignored and actively undermined our nation’s immigration laws.”

The House Homeland Security Committee will review articles of impeachment against Mayorkas next week after lawmakers return from district work, Johnson said. The full chamber should vote on the resolution “as soon as possible thereafter,” he added.

Johnson’s letter further addressed ongoing negotiations between Senate lawmakers on a supplemental spending package that would bundle border security provisions with aid for Ukraine and Israel.

Noting that the upper chamber had yet to reach an agreement, the speaker told his colleagues that the measure “would have been dead on arrival in the House anyway.”

The top House Republican again urged the upper chamber to consider H.R. 2, a sweeping piece of border security legislation the House passed last year. “[T]hat bill contains the core legislative reforms that are necessary to actually compel the Biden administration to resolve the border catastrophe,” Johnson wrote.

Senate Democrats have already signaled that they would not vote for H.R. 2 if it were brought to the floor.

The speaker also heaped pressure on the White House to step in.

“If President Biden wants us to believe he is serious about protecting our national sovereignty, he needs to demonstrate his good faith by taking immediate actions to secure it,” Johnson wrote. “If he wants our conference to view him as a good faith negotiator, he can start with the stroke of a pen.”

The Senate has been hammering out the details of its border security package in fits and starts over the last week. Negotiations have continued despite meddling from former President Donald Trump, who has urged Republicans to reject anything except a “perfect” border bill.

Intervention by Trump and opposition to the proposed bill from GOP lawmakers has fueled speculation that some Republicans want to see a compromise scuttled to hurt President Biden’s political fortunes ahead of November’s presidential election.

Meanwhile, nearly two dozen Republican state governors Thursday publicly backed Abbott’s political revolt against the federal government, writing in a statement that the Biden administration “is refusing to enforce immigration laws already on the books.”

To justify flouting the Supreme Court’s Tuesday ruling, Abbott has argued that the Biden administration failed to fulfill its constitutional duty to protect states. The governor has also said that the Constitution gives states the right to ensure their own self-defense.

Follow @BenjaminSWeiss

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