House Speaker Vows Action Against ‘Unconscionable’ Sanctuary City Policies
After decades of so-called “sanctuary city” policies that promise undocumented immigrants a host of benefits for entering the United States illegally, a growing number of leftist elected officials are now admitting that the border crisis is taking an unsustainable toll on their resources and infrastructure.
Now, House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) is taking aim at Democrats who refuse to enforce federal immigration laws within certain sanctuary jurisdictions.
Utilizing his party’s majority in the House of Representatives, Johnson signaled that Republican lawmakers will be pursuing legislation that would force Democratic-led cities to abide by existing laws.
In a recent New York Post interview, he declared: “I’m certain that will be one of our proposals, and it should.”
His stance on the matter has been influenced by recent demands by Democratic officials in sanctuary cities who are calling on the federal government for a bailout after racking up massive amounts of self-imposed debt by catering to an influx of undocumented migrants.
“The idea that you would maintain a sanctuary city status and then cry out to the federal government for assistance in what you’ve done is, to me, unconscionable,” the newly appointed speaker added.
Of course, his remarks did not absolve the Biden administration for its role in exacerbating the crisis along the nation’s southern border.
Addressing the “inexcusable” actions of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, Johnson asserted that the current policy “is terribly destructive to our country in so many ways” that have become increasingly obvious over the course of the past three years.
“Six million people plus have been apprehended at the border, 1.7 million getaways,” he said. “Fentanyl has just led to an absolute catastrophe — the leading cause of death is overdoses for Americans aged 18 to 49. Human trafficking, enriching the cartels, it goes on and on. And all of that traces back to their policy decisions.”
Johnson acknowledged that certain failures of the Biden administration might be at least partially beyond the control of the White House, but he denounced the president for refusing to take action that would help shut down the unadulterated flow of illegal immigration that has tainted his term thus far.
Mayorkas, he concluded, has been a pivotal cog in the wheel that has allowed the current trend to continue, calling the DHS secretary “one of the worst Cabinet secretaries in the history of the United States.”