Speaker Johnson to visit southern border in California amid attacks on Harris’ policies

(WASHINGTON) — Speaker Mike Johnson will make a trip out West late Thursday to visit the southern border shared with California and Mexico — an effort to take criticisms of the Biden administration’s border policies outside Washington, D.C.

The visit will include a press conference along a border fence called “Whiskey 8” in San Ysidro, California — south of San Diego — with California Republican Rep. Darrell Issa as well as a tour of the U.S. Customs and Border Protection facilities at the San Ysidro Port of Entry and Imperial Beach locations, Johnson’s office told ABC News.

During the press conference, the speaker is expected to illustrate what Republicans count as failures on the Biden administration’s part to secure the border and highlight the SAVE Act, a bill the House recently passed to ban noncitizens from voting in elections.

The border and immigration are key issues for voters who are set to head to the polls to decide the next president in what’s expected to be a close contest between former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris, who has secured commitments from enough delegates to become the presumptive Democratic nominee if they all honor their commitment when voting.

In recent weeks, San Diego has had the highest number of encounters of any border region in the U.S., according to a senior CBP official. But those numbers have declined by 60 percent since the new asylum restrictions from the Biden administration were put in place earlier this summer.

Details of Johnson’s visit come hours after the House approved a resolution to condemn Harris’ border policies. Six Democrats in vulnerable House races — Reps. Mary Peltola, Don Davis, Henry Cuellar, Yadira Caraveo, Gluesenkamp Perez and Jared Golden — voted with Republicans to pass the measure.

Ahead of the vote, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries called the resolution “fake and fraudulent” during his weekly press conference.

“[Kamala Harris] was never assigned border czar. [Republicans] are making that up,” Jeffries said.

Johnson last visited the border in January 2024 when the speaker led a delegation of 64 Republicans to tour the Eagle Pass, Texas, port of entry.

The House has passed its own border bill called the Secure the Border Act, but rejected the bipartisan Senate border bill after Trump pressured Republicans to kill the deal.

ABC News’ Quinn Owen contributed to this report.

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