OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.
House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) has told Joe Biden and the White House to avoid using any “election year gimmicks” in any actions taken to address the ongoing illegal migrant crisis that Republicans have blamed on the president since his term began.
According to reports, Biden is contemplating executive action to limit asylum claims, including a provision to halt new entries after a specified number of illegal crossings—a mechanism resembling one included in a Senate immigration proposal that was recently rejected. Johnson stated that the proposal would have been “dead on arrival” in the House. Additionally, the administration is considering tightening screening standards, The Daily Wire reported.
“Americans have lost faith in this president and won’t be fooled by election year gimmicks that don’t 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 noted in a statement.
The speaker expressed displeasure at reports suggesting Biden is now considering utilizing Section 212(f) of the Immigration and Nationality Act. The provision grants the president the authority to bar entry to individuals considered “detrimental” to U.S. interests to “regain operational control of the border.” It comes after the president previously asserted that he had exhausted all available measures to secure the border.
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
“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.
The Daily Wire added:
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.
“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,” Johnson noted.
In a statement to The Hill, White House spokesman Andrew Bates countered: “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.”
But that said, the Senate legislation that Johnson declared DOA that the White House and Democrats backed would still have allowed up to 5,000 migrants illegally into the country per day before any border closure ‘trigger’ would have come into effect, according to reports.
Critics from both sides of the aisle have expressed concerns about Biden’s handling of the border. They point to the record number of encounters with migrants since 2021 as evidence of mismanagement. In December 2023, there were more than 300,000 encounters with migrants at the southern border, setting a new single-month record.
Johnson and conservative members of the House have maintained that President Biden already possesses the necessary authority to address many of the issues at the border through executive orders.
Some of those executive actions could include simply reinstating several of then-President Trump’s immigration and border security policies.
