House Republicans will gavel in the new 119th Congress on Friday with a priority list of 12 bills to bring to the floor, many of which would allow President-elect Donald Trump to broaden his mass deportation operation.
Six of the dozen forthcoming pieces of legislation packed inside the House rules package would amend border and immigration laws, a focus of the incoming Trump administration.
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The majority of those six bills would make more illegal immigrants within the United States eligible for arrest and potentially deportation, likely expanding who could be removed from the country come Jan. 20 beyond just convicted criminals and those who an immigration judge has already ordered be removed.
Rep. Tony Gonzales (R-TX), whose district includes 40% of the 2,000-mile southern border, said the immigration focus of these bills showed that the GOP understands what the public wants from lawmakers at this point in time.
“The American people demand a 180-degree clean-up of the mess that President Biden created at the border,” Gonzales told the Washington Examiner in a statement Thursday. “That’s why Congress is taking immediate action this new session to ramp up deportations, especially for criminal aliens, and improve border security overall. This needs to be priority No. 1, 2, and 3.”
The top priority for Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) on Friday will be securing enough votes to retain the speakership, which will require near-unanimous support among his smaller House GOP majority. Once the speaker is chosen and new members are sworn in, the House will vote to approve the 36-page rules package for the new Congress.
The provisions include raising the threshold to seek to oust the speaker from one vote to nine members and allowing House Republicans to subpoena Department of Justice officials to testify about ongoing congressional investigations into the Biden family.
The package, released late Wednesday, also provides rules for 12 bills to come to the House floor separately for a vote in the coming weeks, jump-starting the process. The process would not allow for amendments, a provision that the top Democrat on the House Rules Committee blasted as bypassing regular order.
“So much for openness & transparency,” Rep. Jim McGovern (D-MA) said on X.
Below is a rundown of the 12 bills slated to be prioritized as soon as Friday with the rules vote.
1. The gender of athletes competing in college and university sports would be determined by that which they were declared at the time of birth under the Title IX law.
2. The Department of Homeland Security secretary would be required to have federal law enforcement arrest any illegal immigrant who has been charged, not just those convicted, of theft.
3. Any illegal immigrant encountered attempting to enter illegally at the border would be barred from being released into the country if he or she has a conviction or has been charged with a sex offense or domestic violence. Additionally, a person with that charge or conviction within the U.S. would be susceptible to deportation.
4. The assault by an illegal immigrant of a police officer at the local, state, tribal, or federal level would be grounds for deportation.
5. Sanctuary cities and states, or jurisdictions that do not cooperate with federal immigration law enforcement, would receive no federal funding “intended to benefit such aliens.”
6. Any U.S. citizen or immigrant arrested for intentionally fleeing a federal police officer while driving would face criminal and immigration charges.
7. Ensuring health care practitioners exercise the proper degree of care in the case of a child who survives an abortion or attempted abortion.
8. Sanction the International Criminal Court for its efforts investigating, arresting, detaining, or prosecuting a protected person from the U.S. or allied nations.
9. The Internal Revenue Service would issue special rules for certain residents of Taiwan who earn income from sources within the U.S.
10. The National Voter Registration Act would be changed to require proof of U.S. citizenship in order to register to vote in elections for federal office.
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11. The Controlled Substances Act would be updated to include and schedule fentanyl-related substances.
12. Temporary moratoriums on the use of hydraulic fracturing would be banned.
