The White House statement comes after a week of frantic negotiations in the Senate.

The White House statement comes after a week of frantic negotiations in the Senate.

President Joe Biden on Friday urged Congress to pass a bipartisan bill to address the immigration crisis at the nation’s southern border, saying he would shut down the border the day the bill became law.

“What’s been negotiated would — if passed into law — be the toughest and fairest set of reforms to secure the border we’ve ever had in our country,” Biden said in a statement. “It would give me, as President, a new emergency authority to shut down the border when it becomes overwhelmed. And if given that authority, I would use it the day I sign the bill into law.”

Biden’s Friday evening statement resembles a ramping up in rhetoric for the administration, placing the president philosophically in the camp arguing that the border may hit a point where closure is needed. The White House’s decision to have Biden weigh in also speaks to the delicate nature of the dealmaking, and the urgency facing his administration to take action on the border — particularly during an election year, when Republicans have used the issue to rally their base.

The president is also daring Republicans to reject the deal as it faces a make-or-break moment amid GOP fissures.

    • protistEnglish
      1010·
      9 months ago

      Where did you get that immigrants are scary from anything I said? I said there’s too many people for the small communities along the Rio Grande Valley to handle

      • gAlienLifeform@lemmy.world
        156·
        9 months ago

        Gee, maybe voting for small government Republicans for decades wasn’t such a great idea? I’d love for the federal government to be doing more to provide social services down there but you should be honest about how those communities all got so fragile to begin with and take your problems to the voters of Texas.

        • protistEnglish
          73·
          9 months ago

          I’m really trying to understand your point in regards to what I said above

          • gAlienLifeform@lemmy.world
            102·
            9 months ago

            Those small communities are only unable to handle things because they have massively underfunded all their government agencies and social services. If the voters of Texas hadn’t sent budget busting morons to the state legislature for decades they wouldn’t be in this situation.

            • TheFonz@lemmy.world
              1·
              9 months ago

              You don’t know that. Any community would face some challenges with a sudden influx of people. And money is not infinite. This is just slinging vitriol around.