Johnson accuses Democrats of taking government hostage over ‘crazy’ immigration agenda

House Speaker Mike Johnson chastised congressional Democrats on Friday, saying Republicans will not be part of any effort to reopen America's borders and stop the deportation of criminal illegal immigrants. 

Johnson held a two-hour conference call with House Republicans on Friday, saying they were all "united" in the party's position to fully fund the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to end the partial government shutdown that has injected chaos into air travel. 

"They have taken hostage the funding processes of government so that they can impose their radical agenda on the American people," Johnson told reporters of Senate Democrats.  

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"The Senate Democrats have foisted upon this appropriations process their radical, crazy agenda," he added. "We call it crazy because that's what it is. They want to reopen the borders, and they want to stop the deportation of dangerous criminal illegal aliens. We have to do these basic functions of government."

On Friday, the Senate advanced a bill to fund much of DHS, except for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and the U.S. Border Patrol.

"The only thing standing between ending this chaos or not are House Republicans," Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said. "There’s a bipartisan bill that emerged from the Senate with uniform support, and it should be brought to the floor immediately so we can pay TSA agents, so we can end the chaos at airports across the country and stop inconveniencing millions of Americans."

Democrats have refused to fully fund DHS unless Republicans agree to new restrictions on federal immigration authorities. 

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"This gambit that was done last night is a joke," Johnson said of the bill. "It is unconscionable to me that the Democrats would force some sort of negotiation at three o'clock in the morning and try to hoist this upon the American people and then get on their jets and go home for their holiday and pretend and think that we're going to go along with that."

Lawmakers have come under increased pressure to strike a deal to pay Transportation Security Administration (TSA) agents as many have resigned and lines at airports across the country have swelled daily because of staffing issues. 

On Thursday, President Donald Trump signed an executive order to pay TSA agents despite Congress having not appropriated the funds for it. 

Johnson said Republicans will put forward a continuing resolution for all agencies under DHS to keep operating at their current funding levels. 

"The reason that we can't accept this ridiculousness is because we're not going to risk not funding the agencies that keep the American people safe," he said. 

The shutdown began in February, weeks after federal agents shot and killed two people in separate incidents during immigration raids in Minnesota. Democrats have demanded changes to ICE and DHS and have refused to fund the agencies.