House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) suggests that President Joe Biden is not the voice behind the nation’s ongoing border crisis.
This week, Johnson cast his doubts that Biden is not the one calling the shots on the administration’s immigration policy, which is devastating the United States.
“He knows that he has the authority. We’ve documented it for him,” Johnson said during an interview with Fox Business. “I’ve read to him the law myself — to the president. Read him the provisions of the law and said, ‘Mr. President, please take action.’ I don’t think he’s allowed to do it.”
Johnson suggested that the president’s staff is making the decision for him, adding that he thinks they are pushing him to keep the border open.
The Speaker also said that Biden and Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas’ actions of dismantling the Trump Administration’s border policy on the first day of the 81-year-old is in office suggest the border crisis “is by design.”
“Biden went in on the first day of office and began issuing executive orders to … create this catastrophe. Maria, we say it’s ‘by design’ because there is no other explanation,” Johnson said. “We documented 64 executive actions, agency actions, that he and Mayorkas have taken to create this. They could unwind it today by the stroke of a pen.”
The U.S.-Mexico border has seen record amounts of illegal crossings. The fiscal year 2023 alone saw a massive number of illegal aliens storm the southern border, with a record of 3.2 million migrants encountered. This number does not include "gotaways" or those who have avoided detection. Since Biden took office, more than 8 million illegal aliens have entered the United States.
Johnson and Biden have been neck and neck with one another as the president continues to ask Congress to pass a bipartisan bill addressing the country’s illegal immigration issue. At the same time, Republicans are demanding Biden to do more to stem the record-breaking flow of illegal aliens from entering the U.S.
A border deal has been in the works for several weeks now. The Democrat-controlled Senate is working on a deal that would include additional aid for Ukraine and Israel, with border security reforms. However, Johnson has already said the deal would be “dead on arrival” in the GOP-led House.