Congressional Democrats are still playing games with the safety and well-being of American citizens by refusing to get the Department of Homeland Security back to work. On Tuesday, Speaker of the House of Representatives, Republican Representative Mike Johnson (LA-04) called them out on it in a Capital Hill presser.
RIDICULOUS — “Democrats have made that conscious decision to protect criminal illegal aliens. They’re doing it again. In the fall they shut down the government to give funds to ILLEGAL ALIENS & now they’ve shut down the government AGAIN to shield criminal aliens from our laws.”😠 pic.twitter.com/nMOJRukdf8
— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) March 17, 2026
The Speaker made this key point:
Let me make this one additional point. Democrats opened our borders wide to tens of millions of illegal aliens for four years under Joe Biden, including untold numbers of violent, hardened and repeat criminals. That is an objective fact, and no one can refute it. They could have closed the border any time. As you all know, I pleaded with President Biden, who after I became Speaker, to do it, and he pretended as though he did not have the authority to close the border. They chose that. They chose to keep the border wide open. And they looked away, and that happened until President Trump was returned to office and obviously, we secured the border in a very short number of days, because the law was always there. He always had the authority.
This was done, once again, for political purposes. The Democrats did not throw the borders open for four years because of any humanitarian impulses. They did it to artificially ramp up the populations in key districts, to skew the 2030 census and the resulting apportionment of seats. They did so to import new voters from socialist/communist regimes. They did this for political purposes, knowing as they did so that it would harm American citizens, but this was a cynical power play, and that tells us all we need to know about the modern Democratic Party.
Surprisingly, Harry Truman’s spinning in his grave hasn’t yet generated a gyroscopic effect strong enough to knock the Earth out of its orbit.
The Speaker continues:
Now the Democrats want to reverse course. They want to go back to open borders. They want to defund the agencies that are responsible for keeping law and order. And now, Leader Jeffries is claiming this proposal to defund CBP (Customs & Border Patrol) will just allow talks to continue. But you all know, because you’re tracking it every day, that’s nonsense. Bipartisan talks were already underway before funding lapsed. It was Democrats who walked away from the table. They did it precisely so they could take the Department of Homeland Security as their next political hostage. They made a political calculation. Their polling says they’re not fighting Trump enough, and so they determined that Homeland Security was the place to throw down the gauntlet.
Of course they do. Their priorities haven’t changed. Their motivations haven’t changed. Their Stage V Trump Derangement Syndrome has not in any way abated. This isn’t about what’s best for the country or the American people. It’s about power, and they have made it amply clear that if they gain control in this year’s midterm elections, they will set things up so that they never lose another election again, and if you think they can’t, I urge you to look at how they did just this in California; that’s the model.
Read More: We Now Know How Many Terrorist Attacks It Takes to Get Democrats to Blink on DHS Funding
TX Rep. Michael McCaul on the Democrats’ DHS Shutdown: ‘They Will Have Blood on Their Hands’
And here is the vital moment of the presser:
.@SpeakerJohnson reminds us that in the last TWO weeks, we’ve had FOUR jihadist attacks in America.
“EVERY ONE of those attacks falls squarely under the purview of DHS & Democrats don’t want to fund it. Now they’re demanding we strip funding from the agency responsible for… pic.twitter.com/Z8fBXPW0aO
— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) March 17, 2026
The Speaker said:
(Four attacks on American soil) …all of which originated by perpetrators that were already inside the country. Every one of those attacks falls squarely under the purview of the Department of Homeland Security. And the Democrats don’t want to fund it. And now they’re demanding that we strip funding from the very agency responsible for stopping all of that. It’s another dangerous game, a political game by Democrats, that’s as foolish as it is perilous.
Democrats will grab and maintain power at any cost – even at the cost of American lives.
This fall, in the midterm elections, vote. Vote as though the republic depends on it. Vote as though American lives depend on it. Because they do. These people must not be given a majority in Congress.
Editor’s Note: President Trump is leading America into the “Golden Age” as Democrats try desperately to stop it.
Help us continue to report on President Trump’s successes. Join RedState VIP and use promo code FIGHT to get 60% off your membership.
