Speaker Johnson, GOP visit border to pressure Biden, Democrats on immigration deal

House Speaker Mike Johnson on Wednesday led a delegation of 64 Republicans in a trip to the southern border as the GOP seeks to ramp up election-year pressure on President Joe Biden and Democrats to reach a deal on immigration restrictions.

The group toured the Eagle Pass, Texas, port of entry and held an afternoon news conference, during which the GOP lawmakers continued their demands for tougher restrictions and criticism of President Biden amid the tumult at the southwest border.

«It's been an eye opener,» Johnson said at the news conference. «One thing is absolutely clear: America is at a breaking point with record levels of illegal immigration and today we got a firsthand look at the damage and the chaos the border catastrophe is causing in all of our communities. The situation here and across the country is truly unconscionable.»

Johnson called it a «disaster of the president's own design.»

President Biden, returning to Washington late Tuesday, put the onus on Republicans to agree to bipartisan legislation to fund immigration operations.

«We gotta do something,» he told reporters when asked about the situation at the southwest border. «They ought to give me the money I need to protect the border.»

White House spokesperson Andrew Bates, in a statement early Wednesday, slammed Republicans for blocking Biden's request for funding and leaving Washington for holiday recess without a resolution.

«In fact, right now, instead of joining the Biden Administration and members of both parties in the Senate to find common ground, Speaker Johnson is continuing to block President Biden's proposed funding to hire thousands of new Border Patrol agents, hire more asylum officers and immigration judges, provide local communities hosting