In a recent interview with the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Gov. Brian Kemp called out President Joe Biden and demanded his administration take more action to stop the flow of migrant crossings at the United States’ Southern border.

But when President Joe Biden threw his weight behind new border security legislation crafted by Senate Republicans and Democrats, Kemp called Biden’s embrace of the measure “completely political” with the 2024 election around the corner.

“I think it represents President Biden trying to flip-flop on what his real position is, from what he campaigned on,” Kemp said in an interview with the AJC Monday. Before focusing on broader immigration legislation, the Georgia governor said the administration should first close the Southern border to the thousands of people per day seeking asylum in the U.S.

“But that’s not what (Biden) is going to do because the base of his party won’t allow him to do it,” Kemp said.

Kemp is hardly the only skeptic of the new border bill among Republicans. GOP House Speaker Mike Johnson declared the measure “dead on arrival” in his chamber. And before the details were hammered out, former President Donald Trump demanded his party kill the bill to squeeze Biden in an election-year.

In a sign of how objectionable it is to the GOP rank-and-file, U.S. Rep. Mike Collins of Jackson sent a graphic social media post Sunday emphasizing he would definitely not be voting for the proposal.

The legislation itself would increase Border Patrol staff, add deportation flights to return migrants to their home countries, and cap the daily number of migrants allowed to cross the border seeking asylum. But it would not bar border crossings from asylum seekers entirely. The package also includes aid to Ukraine and Israel.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer noted that many Democrats also object to provisions of a deal opposed by progressive and pro-immigration blocs of the party’s base. But he pressed for a compromise, even as some Senate Republicans looked to block the bill.

“The $64,000 question now is whether or not senators can drown out the outside noise, drown out people like Donald Trump who want chaos and do the right thing for America,” Schumer said Monday.

Kemp went to see the Southern border for himself Sunday when he joined Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and about a dozen other GOP governors for a news conference calling on Biden to close the border to the thousands of people per day seeking asylum in the U.S.

The governor deployed Georgia National Guard troops to the U.S. border in 2019 and a contingent of 29 are still stationed there. In the interview, Kemp didn’t rule out sending more, saying he has an “open mind.”

“I’m glad to try to send more resources and help, but I’d rather be answering the president’s call to send resources to protect the whole southern border — not just the southern border in Texas.”

And he sounded skeptical of adopting any new state-level crackdowns on illegal immigration, saying politicians should focus on toughening penalties on drug traffickers and stopping the “money train” at the border.

“I haven’t really seen anything that would be a pressing need. There may be something out there that I’m not aware of,” he said. “But to me, we need to close the southern border. That is the best answer to this problem.”

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