'We're not going to be pushed into a bad deal' on border, says House Republican as talks continue

Conservative Republicans are rejecting the alleged leaked draft of a bipartisan border deal as House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., told the press that negotiators are still working to reach a final agreement. 

The leaders who attended a meeting with President Biden on Wednesday included Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., and House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y.

Sen. James Lankford, R-Okla., is a key player in the negotiations underway in Congress on a supplemental foreign aid package with U.S. border security measures. He attempted to calm critics of the leaked draft of a border deal on Tuesday.

"A lie will go round the world while truth is pulling its boots on. -Charles Haddon Spurgeon 1855," Lankford wrote on X. "I encourage people to read the border security bill before they judge the border security bill. I also advise people not to believe everything you read on the internet," he added.

To date, the draft reportedly included allowing 5,000 immigrants per day to enter the U.S. and issuing work permits to immigrants who American authorities release into the U.S. from the border, according to Immigration Accountability Project. The IAP first posted about the details on social media.

McConnell said on the Senate floor before the meeting with Biden at the White House on Wednesday that "negotiators are making headway toward the most significant border enhancements in almost 30 years."

Later in the day, he said that “now is this time to pay attention to our own border in a addition to these other important international concerns” like Ukraine.

"If we had a 100% Republican government, president, House, Senate, we probably would not be able to get a single Democratic vote to pass what Sen. Lankford the administration are trying to get together on. This is a unique opportunity to accomplish something in divided government," he said.

House Speaker Mike Johnson said on Wednesday that he told Biden in the White House meeting that the U.S. needs "substantive policy change" at the southern border.

"I told the president what I have been saying for many months, and that is that we must have change at the border, substantive policy change. We documented 64 instances where the president took executive action or his agencies took action to create the current catastrophe that we have at the border. It's a national security and humanitarian catastrophe, and I articulated that to the president in the meeting," Johnson said after the meeting.

"Now, we understand that there's concern about the safety, security sovereignty of Ukraine, but the American people have those same concerns about our own domestic sovereignty, and our safety and our security," he added.

Johnson called for returning to the Remain in Mexico policy, which required asylum-seeking migrants to wait in Mexico until their day in court, rather than inside the U.S. Biden rescinded that policy when he came into office.

Johnson also urged the president to end the "catch-and-release" policy that allows federal authorities to release migrants into the U.S. with a notice to appear in court at a later date after they are encountered at the border.

"We must insist that the border be the top priority. I think we have some consensus around that table. Everyone understands the urgency of that," he said. 

Congressional leaders are also currently negotiating a spending package to keep the government funded in addition to a possible supplemental foreign aid package covering Ukraine, Israel, Palestinian refugees, and U.S. border security.

Schumer told reporters that he now puts the chances of reaching an agreement on foreign aid that includes Ukraine, Israel, Palestinian refugees, and the U.S. border at "a little bit greater than half." 

"It was a very good meeting and a very positive meeting. There was a large amount of agreement around the table, that we must do Ukraine, and we must do border," Schumer said. "You cannot, cannot do things with one party in a divided Congress." Schumer recalled that "there were a couple of people in the room who said let's do border first" but Democratic leaders "said we have to do both together."

Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala., said he would vote against the border deal if the leaked draft is indeed accurate. He called for Congress to withhold funding for migrants arriving at the border absent a deal that conservatives support and said it's time to shut the border down.

"We've given $40,000 and up dollars a year to every illegal who comes across the border. We can't afford to do this," he said on the Just the News Not Noise TV program. "We're borrowing $80,000 a second. Okay. That's $4.6 million a minute that we're borrowing on the taxpayer credit card. We can't sustain this."

Rep. Austin Scott, R-Ga., said he's looking forward to seeing the final official text of any deal that's reached with regard to border security.

"We're not going to be pushed into a bad deal. If we're allowing 5,000 people to come in illegally, that's not a good deal," he said on the "Just the News, No Noise" TV program. "I'm not sure that that's an accurate number."

Scott placed the blame on Biden for the record amount of migrants attempting to cross into the U.S. at the border. 

"If Biden had not reversed what Donald Trump had done, we would not have had the flow of illegal immigrants that we've had into the country in the last three years," he said. "So Biden has the ability to put Remain in Mexico and other measures back in place right now, to stop a lot of the flow of illegal immigration."