The Republicans ' cold reception to President Joe Biden's very mention of the border during his State of the Union address may have indicated how far the idea of immigration reform may be.

Biden was jeered repeatedly on Tuesday night, but on Wednesday, lawmakers were quick to push, bashing the commander in chief for failing to adequately acknowledge the border crisis and the 5 million people who have been encountered in the last two years trying to enter the United States without authorization to do so, according to federal border data.

“He talks about fentanyl like ‘we need to do more about it’ — well, no kidding we need to do more about it. Build the wall. Secure the border,” said Sen. Kevin Cramer (R-ND) in a statement.

In Wisconsin, Sen. Ron Johnson (R) sarcastically credited Biden with following through on his promise to “fundamentally change things.”

“The disastrous results of his governance describe the actual state of our union — a more divided nation, 40-year-high inflation, an open border with a flood of illegal immigration and deadly drugs, high energy prices, rising crime, record debt and growing threats from global adversaries,” Johnson said in a statement.

Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV), ranking member of the Senate Homeland Security Appropriations Subcommittee, called Biden’s speech a “premature and undeserved victory lap.”

“I’m pleased that President Biden used this moment to highlight the importance of extended efforts to end childhood cancer and the addiction crisis, two areas I have been heavily involved in that need attention from the oval office,” Capito said. “However, I’m disappointed that he did not use this opportunity to let the American people know he understands their concerns and outline a path toward an affordable future, or seriously acknowledge the crisis on our southern border.”

Down on the U.S.-Mexico border, first-term Rep. Monica De La Cruz (R) of the Rio Grande Valley in Texas said the speech left South Texans without a solution to numerous problems impacting their daily lives, including “turning our towns into migrant camps.”

“Wages are stagnant for millions of Americans, which means that when coupled with record inflation, most families have experienced a record decline in real spending power,” De La Cruz said. “South Texans have big families, so here’s what this means for us: We have more mouths to feed and less money to do it with.”

Rep. Mark Green (R-TN), the new chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, said Biden's interest in cleaning up the fentanyl epidemic that has plagued the U.S. and grown worse each year was too little too late.

“Synthetic drugs, like fentanyl, are flowing across the border, plaguing communities like the one I represent in Tennessee, poisoning far too many Americans, and becoming the leading cause of death among young adults," said Green, who added that the steps necessary to do so were actions that Biden has opposed. "Stopping the flow of fentanyl and dangerous synthetic drugs into our communities means taking real steps to secure our border, like finishing the border wall, supporting law enforcement on the ground, and reinstating common sense policies that combat illegal immigration and human trafficking."

Gov. Greg Abbott (R-TX) took a victory lap after Biden's speech and claimed that his state's plethora of actions to bolster border security had set an example for the federal government to follow. Biden's newly announced initiatives to target fentanyl smugglers followed footsteps Abbott took in 2021.

"Texas has seized enough fentanyl to kill every man, woman, and child in the United States," said Abbott. "Americans deserve decisive action from our federal government to stem the tide of this deadly drug entering our country, but in order to truly solve the fentanyl crisis, President Biden needs to do what Texas has been trying to do in his absence — secure our southern border. Once again, President Biden proved that Texas leads, and Washington follows."