Rep. Kat Cammack (R-FL) has joined the growing number of congressional lawmakers speaking out against the latest border legislation, with the Florida congresswoman arguing that this new bill expedites the parole process for immigrants.
The bill, which aims to provide financial aid to Ukraine and secure the southern border, has been widely panned among those in Congress, with Republicans being the most vocal. Cammack described the legislation as “garbage” and claimed that the bill does not properly address security concerns regarding the border.
This is not border security,” Cammack said on Fox News’s The Faulkner Focus. “This is a way for them to parole people into the United States faster. You are not securing the border in this package, and we would do well not to lie to the American people and try to sell them on that.”
The Florida congresswoman added that for the bill to have any chance of passing in the House, the border would need to be the focus of the legislation. She explained that a key problem with the bill is how it only provides funding to increase the number of processors for migrants.
“It offers citizenship to Afghan parolees,” Cammack said. “It creates more visas. It’s basically just increasing the incentives for people to come here illegally and reward them for engaging in illegal action.”
In the wake of the pushback, Sen. James Lankford (R-OK) has encouraged critics of the legislation to read the bill’s text for themselves rather than just going “off a Facebook post” summarizing the bill. He added that Republicans should recognize they only control the House, not the Senate, and that the bill is a chance “to solve as many things as we can.”
House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) is among the critics of the bill, claiming that it fails to “adequately stop” President Joe Biden’s “abuse of parole authority.” He has called on the Senate to take up the House’s Secure the Border Act instead.
Any consideration of this Senate bill in its current form is a waste of time,” Johnson wrote on social media. “It is DEAD on arrival in the House. We encourage the U.S. Senate to reject it.”
Former President Donald Trump has also weighed in on the bill, calling it “horrendous” and saying that it is both “a great gift” to Democrats and “a Death Wish” for Republicans.