The White House referred to illegal immigrants as "newcomers" in a Thursday brief urging Congress to pass a bipartisan bill on border security and asylum restrictions.
"The bill also includes $1.4 billion for cities and states who are providing critical services to newcomers, and would expedite work permits for people who are in the country and qualify," the White House said in the brief. President Joe Biden and former president Donald Trump are both scheduled to visit the U.S.-Mexico border on Thursday following an unprecedented surge of migrants in recent months.
The Senate bipartisan bill proposes "the toughest and fairest reforms to secure the border we have had in decades," adding border patrol agents, asylum officers, detention beds, immigration judges, and drug-detecting equipment, according to the White House brief. "[The bill] would make our country safer, make our border more secure, and treat people fairly and humanely while preserving legal immigration, consistent with our nation’s values."
The brief also accused House speaker Mike Johnson (R., La.) and House Republicans of "play[ing] politics at the expense of border security." Earlier this month, Biden lashed out at Trump for allegedly pushing to block the border security bill. "All indications are this bill won’t even move forward to the Senate floor," Biden said, "because Donald Trump thinks it’s bad for him politically and [would] rather weaponize this issue than actually solve it."