House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) took a shot at President Joe Biden on Thursday over the prospect of the administration using executive powers to address the crisis at the U.S.-Mexico border as the commander-in-chief revs up his campaign to get re-elected this November.
Reports say Biden is considering executive action to restrict asylum claims with a trigger to block new entrants upon a certain number of illegal crossings — a mechanism similar to one that was tucked into a recently defeated Senate immigration deal that Johnson said would have been “dead on arrival” in the House — and toughening standards for screenings.
“Americans have lost faith in this President and won’t be fooled by election year gimmicks that don’t actually secure the border. Nor will they forget that the President created this catastrophe and, until now, has refused to use his executive power to fix it,” Johnson said in a statement.
My statement regarding President Biden finally admitting he has the authority to address the border catastrophe he has created: pic.twitter.com/GUWeeb05pW
— Speaker Mike Johnson (@SpeakerJohnson) February 22, 2024
The speaker took umbrage at how Biden is reportedly now looking at employing Section 212(f) of the Immigration and Nationality Act, which gives the president the power to block entry to foreigners deemed to be “detrimental” to U.S. interests in order to “regain operational control of the border,” after the president claimed he had done all he could do to secure it.
“These reports also underscore just how brazenly and intentionally President Biden misled the public when he claimed he had done everything in his power to secure the border. Specifically, the President’s alleged desire to invoke Section 212(f) of the Immigration and Nationality Act, which the White House dismissed using for months, is particularly telling,” Johnson said.
Johnson sent a letter to Biden in December encouraging the president to consider a number of options under existing law in lieu of an immediate legislative solution after the Senate refused to consider a House-passed border security bill. The list included ending catch-and-release, stopping the “exploitation” of parole authority, reviving asylum cooperation agreements with Mexico, ramping up “expedited” removal of migrants who fail to qualify for asylum, and renewing construction of a border wall.
The speaker raised a couple of familiar suggestions on Thursday, saying in his statement, “If these reports are true and the President intends to take action, he can show he’s serious by changing more than asylum policy. He should begin by reinstating the ‘Remain in Mexico’ policy and ending his administration’s abuse of the parole system, along with other critical reforms.”
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White House spokesman Andrew Bates said, “The only consistent theme in Speaker Johnson’s wildly fluctuating excuses for opposing bipartisan border security legislation — and for continuing to side with fentanyl traffickers instead of the Border Patrol — is that he is playing politics with the wellbeing of American families,” according to The Hill.
“For six straight years, Speaker Johnson demanded border security legislation, only for House Republicans to balk as soon as they saw the strongest bipartisan border deal in modern history and kill it, explicitly citing Donald Trump’s concerns that making America safer would diminish his campaign,” Bates continued, adding, “We continue to call on Speaker Johnson and House Republicans to return from their vacation and pass the bipartisan border security bill.”