House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) promised to demand “transformative policy change” on the U.S.-Mexico border on Wednesday, just ahead of a planned meeting with President Joe Biden and other leaders on Capitol Hill.
Johnson, who just recently returned from a visit to the border, has said on several occasions that any deal to secure additional funding and aid for Ukraine and Israel would necessarily be tied to funding and policy changes aimed at securing the border.
WATCH:
Today I will tell President Biden directly: House Republicans are demanding transformative policy change to secure the border.
The American people deserve nothing less. pic.twitter.com/R5g80zlqFa
— Speaker Mike Johnson (@SpeakerJohnson) January 17, 2024
Johnson shared a brief video via X ahead of the meeting, along with the caption: “Today I will tell President Biden directly: House Republicans are demanding transformative policy change to secure the border. The American people deserve nothing less.”
“We’re not playing politics with this,” Johnson said in the video. “We’re demanding real, transformative policy change because that’s what the American people need and deserve — and what they’re demanding as well. House Republicans are standing on that line, and I will tell the president that today.”
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”I’ve been saying it consistently since the moment I was handed this gavel,” Johnson continued. “And that’s never changed.”
Johnson went on to lay out some of the reasons that policy change was so important, noting that fentanyl was the “leading cause of death for Americans aged 18-49” and addressing the ongoing issue of human trafficking and sex trafficking of children.
“The cartels on the border are making billions of dollars trafficking humans into the U.S.,” Johnson added, echoing some of the concerns he raised during a recent interview with CNN anchor Jake Tapper. “Sixty to seventy percent of the people that cross at the — Eagle Pass, which is the main funnel right now — are single, adult males between the ages of 18 and 40. These are not ‘huddled masses’ of families seeking refuge and asylum, these are people coming here probably with ill design.”
The meeting is scheduled to take place at the White House on Wednesday.