Speaker Mike Johnson and GOP Delegation Deliver Remarks on Border Security in Texas

Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) delivered remarks at a press conference Wednesday in Eagle Pass, Texas — a site that’s become home to a sprawling makeshift encampment following a record-breaking surge of migrants crossing the southern U.S. border. Johnson is heading a delegation of some 60 GOP members visiting the Texas border city. Like many in his party, he favors a hard stance to limit immigration. A GOP border bill that passed in the House last summer has been rejected by the Democratic-majority Senate. The Speaker more recently told Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) that aid to Ukraine must be tied to approval of the House bill. Meanwhile, criticism of President Biden’s enforcement of border policy is central to the campaigns of his Republican challengers — most crucially former President Trump, the clear GOP primary front-runner and a longtime fierce opponent of leniency in immigration policies.