Congressman: $60 Billion in Aid to Ukraine Would ‘Complete’ U.S. Border Wall

On Tuesday, House Republicans followed through on their promise to impeach Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas for his “systematic refusal” to enforce border laws and “breach of public trust” amid an unprecedented surge of illegal border crossings under President Joe Biden’s administration. The move came after the Senate’s passage earlier the same day of a bill giving billions of additional dollars to Ukraine that did not include any funding to secure America’s southern border.

The Senate’s supplemental national security bill would give $60 billion to Ukraine for its fight against Russia, which critics say does not include measures to make sure the money is being spent legitimately. Lawmakers are also pointing out that the dollars being pledged to Ukraine would be enough to virtually complete the security wall that is currently being intermittently constructed along the southern border of the U.S.

“[I]f you take that $60 billion and you were to apply it to physical barriers at our southern border, you could complete, by my staff and I’s quick calculation, 1,200 miles of border wall,” Rep. Josh Brecheen (R-Okla.) pointed out during Tuesday’s edition of “Washington Watch with Tony Perkins.” “We’ve already got 700 miles of border wall or structures along a 2,000 mile area. And so you could almost have a long-standing completion of a physical barrier with that $60 billion that they’re advocating to put towards Ukraine.”

Because of the bill’s lack of provisions for securing the southern border, House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) has vowed that he will not bring it to the floor for a vote. “I’m grateful to Speaker Johnson [for] saying, ‘Look, this is not the priority,’” Brecheen remarked.

Meanwhile, Senate Democrats led by Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) have belittled the House’s impeachment of Mayorkas, calling it a “sham.” A two-thirds majority of the Senate would be required to convict the DHS secretary and remove him from office, which has a small chance of happening, leading to critics saying that the House’s actions are of little importance.

Congressman Brecheen strongly disagreed. “[I]f you have the opportunity to address lawlessness and you choose not to because you say, ‘Well, they’re not going to move on it,’ you’re still accountable for your own actions,” he contended. “The House has to be accountable for itself, and the Senate has to be accountable for itself. And the House, if we tolerate this, we empower the lawlessness that is on our southern border, and [we empower] any bureaucrat to say the will of Congress or the will of the people doesn’t matter.”

Brecheen went on to give a scathing critique of the manner in which the executive and legislative branches have resorted to governing in the modern era.

“If 30 and 40 years ago, when people were issuing executive orders, if Congress said, ‘No, Article 1, Section 1 says all legislative powers be vested in the Congress — you have no right.’ And impeachment would happen quickly … if the Congress said, ‘You’re out for bad behaviors.’ The Constitution tells us what a different world we’d be in today,” he observed. “… Under Washington, you had eight executive orders. Under Madison, you had one executive order. Under Jefferson, you had one. And yet now, you progress all the way to Theodore Roosevelt, he issued 1,000 executive orders. Franklin Delano Roosevelt issued 3,000. And we find ourselves where we’re at today, where these emergency orders by presidents are tolerated.”

Brecheen further argued that lawlessness festers if it is not adequately addressed. “Lawlessness compounds lawlessness. [I]n Ecclesiastes it says, ‘When the sentence for a crime is not quickly carried out, the heart of the people is enticed to do more evil.’ [T]hat’s where we’re at in this country. When we don’t punish lawlessness, it just compounds.”

Brecheen concluded by urging a return to enforcing the rule of law. “Lawlessness is not something to laugh at. The rule of law matters. We’re losing it. … [O]ur debt, our deficit … our border — lawlessness is really at the root of all of this. And when someone crosses a line, if you don’t call time out and say, ‘You’re out of bounds’ — if the umpires don’t call strikes and balls, then this stuff continues.”