Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas on Wednesday said House Republicans' proposed changes to border security "do violence to our fundamental values."
House Speaker Mike Johnson Tuesday told fellow Republicans that sweeping changes to U.S. border policy would be their "hill to die on" in negotiations over President Joe Biden’s nearly $106 billion package for the wars in Ukraine and Israel, among other security needs.
During a Wednesday interview on CNN, Mayorkas was asked to comment on GOP demands that include resuming construction of a border wall, increasing the number of Border Patrol agents, limiting asylum, and narrowing Biden’s power to parole illegal migrants.
"I would say two things," Mayorkas told CNN. "One, we’ve presented proposals that address the situation that provide real practical solutions, and also, do not do violence to our fundamental values.
"We are a country of refuge. We do have asylum laws. We do have refugee laws. We abide by our international obligations that are longstanding. And so that is my response to that.
"Some of the proposals are reasonable and worthy of discussion. Others are, frankly, not."
The Republican National Committee (RNC), via its research account on X, formerly known as Twitter, shared video of Mayorkas' appearance.
The RNC said Mayorkas was echoing Biden, who Tuesday night called the border security measures "the most draconian actions possible."
"Instead of action, Democrats insist on tying border security to billions in taxpayer funding for Ukraine — even dangling it as a 'golden opportunity' from Democrats otherwise perfectly fine with Biden’s open border," the RNC said in a statement.
"Call the dereliction of Biden, Mayorkas, and congressional Democrats what it is: a danger to the American people."
Johnson reiterated his stance in a letter to the White House on Tuesday, one day after officials warned that the U.S. will run out of funding to send weapons and assistance to Ukraine by the end of the year, threatening its ability to fight Russia's invasion.
The New York Post reported in September that 3.8 million people had entered the U.S. through its borders since Biden took office. Also, there have been more than 1.5 million so called "gotaways."
"[T]ens of thousands make the attempt every single day," the RNC said. "Millions have been released into U.S. communities with little vetting. More individuals on the terror watchlist were encountered at the southern border last fiscal year than the previous six years combined."
The Associated Press contributed to this story.
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