His first point was that the asylum-seekers and others with temporary legal status who
would be eligible for these programs under the Democrats’ shutdown-ending proposal should nonetheless be treated as “illegal aliens.” He said this was because the Biden administration granted such designations too freely.
House Speaker Mike Johnson of Louisiana has also been vehement about this claim.
“Joe Biden used executive orders, and he expanded benefits, health care to illegal aliens in his four-year term,” Johnson said Thursday. “That was an outrageous violation of the existing federal law and of the principles of good stewardship.”
It’s an argument that could seemingly have plenty of appeal. Americans turned very sour on the Biden administration’s handling of immigration and asylum in recent years, before Biden moved to toughen up his approach. A Reuters-Ipsos earlier this year showed
56% of Americans wanted to “dramatically reduce” the number of migrants allowed to claim asylum at the border.
But saying these migrants should be considered “illegal” – even if Republicans genuinely believe that – doesn’t make them so, at least under current law.
To the extent Republicans want to treat them as illegal, they could take other steps to try to strip them of legal status. Unless and until they do, though, these people have legal status under US law and aren’t “illegal aliens.”
