House GOP, including Speaker Mike Johnson, visit southern border

(NewsNation) — House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., and 60 other members of Congress are visiting the U.S.-Mexico border Wednesday for an on-the-ground assessment of the crisis.

On the day before the trip, Johnson posted two pictures of Eagle Pass, Texas, on social media, saying that under President Joe Biden, “our southern border is a disaster.”

Rep. Nick LaLota, R-N.Y., is joining Johnson.

“This is my third trip to the border. I’m proud to join with the speaker because the administration has totally failed America at the border, making us less safe and secure,” LaLota said in an interview on “The Hill.” 

The White House pushed back against remarks like this, with spokesperson Andrew Bates arguing it’s the GOP who have an “anti-border security record.”

“Actions speak louder than words,” Bates said in a statement reported on by NewsNation partner The Hill. “House Republicans’ anti-border security record is defined by attempting to cut Customs and Border Protection personnel, opposing President Biden’s record-breaking border security funding, and refusing to take up the President’s supplemental funding request.”

Officials at the nation’s southern border encountered more than 302,000 migrants in December, the highest monthly total on record, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) sources confirmed to NewsNation. 

The previous high was in September 2023, when authorities recorded 269,735 encounters.

Negotiations between House Republicans and the Senate are underway, tied to various international aid packages. LaLota stressed the urgency of securing the border, citing a 67% disapproval rating for President Joe Biden’s handling of the situation.   

Addressing concerns about potential compromises falling short of House principles, LaLota highlighted the importance of common-sense measures, such as the “remain in Mexico” provision.  

Drawing parallels to a State of the Union address by former President Bill Clinton, he emphasized the unfairness of allowing illegal border crossings to impact American workers and those already in the immigration line. 

Ron Vitiello, former chief of U.S. Border Patrol during the Trump administration and a GOP candidate for the Senate in Virginia, expressed grave concern over the escalating crisis at the border in an interview on “NewsNation Now.”

The former ICE acting director characterized the situation as “really bad” and emphasized the continuous deterioration since the beginning of the current presidency. 

“This administration refuses to take any steps to make this situation better,” he said.

Providing context, Vitiello compared the recent numbers to the first full year of the Donald Trump presidency in 2017, stating that there were only 310,000 encounters by Border Patrol in the entire fiscal year.  

He stressed that the current situation is orders of magnitude worse than any other time in the history of the border, with no apparent end in sight.

NewsNation’s Ali Bradley contributed to this report.