House GOP: Immigration Bill 'Dead on Arrival'

Calling the bill "dead on arrival," House Republicans derided the Senate's attempt for a vote on bipartisan immigration legislation this week as a political ploy, Politico reported Monday.

The criticism came after Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer announced Sunday that the immigration bill, which came about over months of bipartisan negotiations as part of a broader package of foreign aid that subsequently passed on its own, will get a floor vote this week.

In a statement, House Speaker Mike Johnson and his Republican leadership team harshly criticized the maneuver, saying that Schumer is trying to "give his vulnerable members cover by bringing a vote on a bill which 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."

The GOP statement added that "should it reach the House, the bill would be dead on arrival."

House Republican leaders have long said that they want the more hardline immigration measure, HR 2, which was passed by the House but has been a nonstarter for congressional Democrats.

GOP leaders said in their statement that "if Senate Democrats were actually serious about solving the problem and ending the border catastrophe, they would bring up HR 2 and pass it this week."

In any case, no one expects the Senate's border legislation to make it across the Capitol to the House, according to Politico.

Some Senate progressives are expected to oppose their own leaders' move to pass the negotiated bill, because they say its policy is too extreme.

Across the aisle, the GOP has already indicated the maneuver by Schumer is merely an attempt to boost endangered Democrat incumbents before the November election who are being criticized by their opponents on the issue.

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