White House pushes senators to pass border security bill

WASHINGTON

The White House on Monday urged the Senate to pass a border security bill later this week that Republicans blocked in February.

"This bipartisan border legislation would deliver the significant policy changes, resources and personnel needed to secure our border and make our country safer," Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said in a statement.

She said it would add thousands of additional Border Patrol agents, invest in technology to catch fentanyl and go after drug traffickers and add asylum officers and immigration officers.

"We strongly support this legislation and call on every Senator to put partisan politics aside and vote to secure the border," she added.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said Monday that he would put the "strongest, most comprehensive" border security bill back on the Senate floor.

The bipartisan border bill would reform asylum laws, boost staffing at the border, stop the flow of drugs like fentanyl, and give emergency powers to shut the border, he added.

However, House Speaker Mike Johnson’s GOP leadership team issued a statement saying the bill has already failed once in the Senate because "it would actually codify many of the disastrous Biden open border policies that created this crisis in the first place."

"Should it reach the House, the bill would be dead on arrival," the statement said.

Meanwhile, President Joe Biden spoke with Johnson and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell on Monday as the White House pushed for the bill's passage.

“In these calls, President Biden reiterated that Congressional Republicans should stop playing politics and act quickly to pass this bipartisan border legislation,” the White House said.