Lauren Boebert Says Cartels 'Salivating' Over Border Bill

Rep. Lauren Boebert has claimed that cartels are "salivating" over the $118 billion bipartisan border bill unveiled on Sunday.

The carefully negotiated agreement pairs new border enforcement measures with billions of dollars in aid for Ukraine, Israel and other U.S. allies.

While President Joe Biden worked toward the deal with Republican and Democratic leaders in the Senate, it was met with immediate opposition from Republicans in both chambers. House GOP leaders said it would not even receive a vote.

Boebert said the bill "reads like a compromise between the cartels, the human traffickers" and Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.

"They are all salivating reading this thing," the Republican congresswoman wrote on X, formerly Twitter, on Monday.

"No Republican should support this absolute amnesty monstrosity that fails to actually secure the border."

In other posts, she called the bill "absolute trash" and said she refused to support sending more aid to Ukraine.

"With $60 billion of the $118 billion in the Senate proposal going to Ukraine, apparently [President Joe] Biden and the Senate value Ukraine more than America," she wrote in one post. "I'm done squandering money in Ukraine. America first!"

Newsweek has contacted Boebert's office for further comment via email.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said he would hold the first procedural vote on the legislation on Wednesday.

Sen. Mitch McConnell, the Senate's top Republican, has urged his colleagues to support the legislation.

In a statement, he said he was grateful to Sen. James Lankford, the lead Republican negotiator, for "working tirelessly to ensure that supplemental national security legislation begins with direct and immediate solutions to the crisis at our southern border."

"America's sovereignty is being tested here at home, and our credibility is being tested by emboldened adversaries around the world," McConnell said. "The challenges we face will not resolve themselves, nor will our adversaries wait for America to muster the resolve to meet them."

Lankford has sought to clear up some confusion over the legislation, calling it "misunderstood."

"Some people have said it would mean 5,000 people a day are coming into the country every day. That is absurd and untrue," he wrote on X. "The emergency authority is not designed to let 5,000 people in, it is designed to close the border and turn 5,000 people around."

House Speaker Mike Johnson said the legislation would be "dead on arrival" if it reaches the House.

Republican senators have also expressed their opposition. "The 'border deal' is an easy NO. It reads like a parody of an actual border security bill," Sen. Marco Rubio wrote on X.

Biden said the proposal includes "the toughest and fairest set of order reforms in decades."

"It will make our country safer, make our border more secure, treat people fairly and humanely while preserving legal immigration, consistent with our values as a nation," the Democratic president said in a statement.

He said it also "allows the United States to continue our vital work, together with partners all around the world, to stand up for Ukraine's freedom and support its ability to defend itself against Russia's aggression."

Update 2/5/24, 10:15 a.m. ET: This article has been updated with additional information.