Controversy in Congress has been making headlines in recent weeks and months, between the multiple Speakers of the House and the ongoing efforts to pass basic funding bills. One of the many ongoing negotiations that has been happening in Congress is over a bill that would secure the United States border and allocate funding for American allies in Europe and the Middle East.
About the Border Bill
The border bill that has been working its way through committee would have offered the President new powers to unilaterally secure the border should it become necessary. It would give Biden the ability to refuse entry to migrants crossing the border or to quickly expel those who had already entered the United States, should it be deemed emergent.
The bill had bipartisan support, and Republicans and Democrats have been working together closely for months to craft the nearly 400-page bill. Shortly after it passed out of committee, though, Senate Republicans tanked their own bill after Speaker of the House Mike Johnson stated that it was “dead on arrival” in the House.
Why Did Republicans Tank It?
Many constituents were confused why the Republicans would spend months on a bill only to kill it before it could come to a public vote. The bill was not perfect by any means, but it was the epitome of bipartisan leadership. Everybody got something, and nobody got everything.
Hardliners in the House disagreed that the border bill needed to be tied to funding for our allies in Ukraine and the Middle East, though, which was cited as the reason why the bill was killed. However, a recent vote on solo funding for Israel also failed in a deeply divided House of Representatives.
Conservatives Deeply Unhappy
Despite the fact that the border bill was the first significant legislation to be passed regarding the immigration crisis, there are many conservatives who have expressed their discontent with the bill. One such commentator, Tomi Lahren, took to X, formerly known as Twitter, to complain about the content of the bill.
Tomi Lahren is a conservative commentator who first started her career on TheBlaze, which is an American conservative media company. She was removed from their payroll in 2017 after a statement where she supported a woman’s right to abortion, and has since been an employee of Great America Alliance, which is an advocacy organization that supports Donald Trump. She also appears on Fox News as a guest, and hosts a talk show on Fox Nation.
Lahren Complaining on the Internet
Regarding the border bill, Lahren couldn’t have been more clear in her displeasure when she took to Twitter. She complained about “so-called” Republicans selling average Americans out, and claimed that Republicans in Congress had been “tricked” by Democrats on the border bill.
She claimed, without evidence or support, that the border bill essentially codifies illegal immigration, and wondered why the Republicans saw that as an accomplishment. According to Lahren, this move was a Democratic attempt to shift the narrative on immigration.
Praising Former President Trump
Lahren then went on to state that Democrats were making the border bill seem necessary to secure the nation’s borders, which she vehemently disagreed with. She asserted that former President Trump had addressed border security effectively during his presidency.
According to Lahren’s, Trump worked closely with the Border Patrol and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in order to secure the border, and that was a significantly more effective policy stance than any of the provisions that were in the border bill that Republicans and Democrats tried to pass.
Accusing Democrats of Partisanship
Lahren closed out her statement by accusing the Democrats of only wanting to pass a border bill to help Biden during an election year, not out of genuine concern for the security of the country. She finished her statement with the phrase, “Hold the freaking line!”
This was a repeat of rhetoric that Lahren has spouted in the past, accusing Democrats of simply making moves to benefit their own political party, rather than moves that are for the benefit of the country. She thinks that hardlining is the only way to make sure that the country moves “in the right direction,” a stance that is emphasized by her tweets.
Agreement From Lahren’s Followers
Many conservatives showed up to agree with Lahren’s tweet in principle. One Twitter user wrote, “Republicans need to do their job and shut down the government until the border is closed. Hold the line.” Another posited that the senator from Oklahoma needed to be removed from office for supporting the bill.
Many people also agreed with Lahren that the Republicans in Congress were “selling out” their constituents by working with Democrats on the border bill. This has been a contentious opinion that some Congressional Republicans share, which led to Kevin McCarthy losing the Speakership last fall after working with Democrats on a stopgap funding bill.
A Bill that Impacts Many
Unfortunately, partisan politics are affecting significant numbers of people’s lives. People like Lahren and her Twitter base who have been calling for a government shut down simply see it as another political ploy, rather than a devastating move that would affect thousands of people’s jobs and incomes.
Despite this, there appears to be no agreement on the horizon regarding the border bill. Rumors have floated that Republicans in the House and Senate killed the bill on the behest of Donald Trump, with the assumption being that Trump doesn’t want the border to be an issue that is “solved” during an election year, preferring to be the one to do it himself, should be reelected.
The Future of the Border is Unclear
Regardless of the reasoning behind the conflict around the border bill, the fact of the matter is that this particular piece of legislation has a difficult road ahead of it when it comes to being passed.
Moderate Republicans have expressed frustration with some of their more conservative, hardliner colleagues for refusing to budge, even for something that could be sold as a win during an election year. Whether the funding will pass or the border will be solved in another bill, at another time, remains to be seen, and America is watching the spectacle in Congress closely.
