OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.
President Joe Biden and the Democrats have been talking about securing the border but there is just an issue that Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) found.
Actually, there are 64 issues that he found as the president, and suddenly, after three years, he is now talking as if he is interested in securing the border.
“Last week, in a weak attempt to shift blame for a crisis their own policies created, the White House clumsily tried to claim that House Republicans had an ‘anti-border security record’ by voting to ‘eliminate over 2,000 border patrol agents and erode our capacity to seize fentanyl,’” the Speaker said on his website.
“These claims were demonstrably untrue, previously disproven, and underscored the Biden Administration’s failure to secure our southern border, marked by record high crossings in December and widespread national recognition that the situation at our border is a crisis,” he said.
“Since his first day in office, President Biden and his administration have worked to systematically undermine America’s border security,” the Speaker said. “On more than 60 occasions, he has manipulated the federal bureaucracy to open our borders to illegal immigrants, human trafficking, fentanyl, and potential terrorists. The result is a humanitarian and national security catastrophe. The President must use his executive authority to repair what he has broken. I am calling on him to do so. “
Here are some of the examples of lax border security Johnson identified, dating back to Biden’s first day in office when he reversed many of former President Donald Trump’s effective policies:
- Jan 20, 2021: President Biden terminated the National Emergency at the Southwest border (Proclamation 9844), thereby halting emergency construction of a border wall.
- Jan 20, 2021: President Biden issued an Executive Order (EO) further entrenching the unlawful Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program. With his action, President Biden directed the Secretary of Homeland Security, in consultation with the Attorney General, “to preserve and fortify DACA”, signaling to illegal aliens that his Administration supports amnesty and that illegal aliens need not fear coming to the U.S. or worry about immigration enforcement.
- Jan 20, 2021: President Biden unveiled the U.S. Citizenship Act, which would provide amnesty to millions of illegal aliens in the U.S., demonstrating intent to reward illegal border crossers with a path to citizenship.
- Jan 20, 2021: President Biden revoked Trump-era Executive Order that was designed to ensure there was meaningful enforcement of U.S. immigration laws.
- Jan 20, 2021: The Administration issued an Executive action ending limitations and restrictions against immigration from certain countries associated with terrorism.
- Jan 20, 2021: The Biden Administration announced a 100-day moratorium on deportations and immigration enforcement, effectively providing amnesty to criminal and other removable aliens and sending the signal the Biden Administration would not enforce the law. The Administration also announced interim immigration enforcement guidelines that signaled to illegal aliens that they do not have to worry about the possibility of deportation.
- Feb 1, 2021: The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) implemented Acting Secretary Pekoske’s policy requiring a new “process [that] shall provide for assessments of alternatives to removal including, but not limited to, staying or reopening cases, alternative forms of detention, custodial detention, whether to grant temporary deferred action, or other appropriate action.”
- Feb 2, 2021: President Biden issued Executive Order (EO) 14010 and began processing asylum claims at the border. In the EO, the President also signaled an end to the Migrant Protection Protocols (which is known as “Remain in Mexico” or “MPP”) while making other statements signaling an open border.
- Feb 6, 2021: Secretary of State Antony Blinken suspended, and began termination procedures, for the Trump Administration’s Asylum Cooperative Agreements with El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras. These agreements ensured aliens seeking asylum could do so in countries closer to their home country and in countries other than the United States.
- Feb 2021: The Biden Administration voluntarily stopped applying Title 42 expulsions to children across the board, setting off a major wave of unaccompanied alien children, family units, and illegal aliens generally heading to the U.S. border.
- Feb 17, 2021: The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) exempted unaccompanied alien children (UAC) from Title 42 expulsion requirements, thereby encouraging UACs to come to the U.S. and parents to pay cartels to smuggle their children to the U.S. border.
- Mar 31, 2021: The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) issued guidance rolling back requirements for background checks on adults in the household of a UAC sponsor.
- Apr 30, 2021: The Biden Administration canceled further wall construction which was being led by the Department of Defense (DOD).
- June 15, 2021: The Biden Administration announced expansion of the Central American Minors (CAM) program to broaden the list of illegal aliens who can sponsor family members through the program, including illegal aliens who claim asylum.
- June 16, 2021: Attorney General Merrick Garland rescinded the Trump-era decision In Matter of L-E-A-, thereby expanding asylum eligibility to allow nuclear or immediate familial relationships to be treated as a “particular social group.”
- June 16, 2021: Attorney General Merrick Garland rescinded the Trump-era decision in Matter of A-B I and A-B II, thereby expanding asylum eligibility to include gender and domestic relationships as certain social groups, reverting to policy under in Matter of A-R-C-G.
- Fiscal Year 2021: Throughout Fiscal Year 2021, the Biden Administration distributed more than $300 million in federal law enforcement grants to Sanctuary Cities under SCAAP, Byrne, and COPS programs (amounting to 43% of total awards going to sanctuary cities), financially rewarding cities whose policies encourage illegal immigration.
- Oct 8, 2021: DHS canceled another group of border wall contracts led by DHS related to the Laredo and Rio Grande Valley Border Sectors.
- Oct 12, 2021: DHS effectively suspended large-scale worksite enforcement, a key tool to deter the hiring and employment of illegal aliens.
- Oct 27, 2021: DHS Secretary Mayorkas issued a memorandum prohibiting enforcement of immigration laws in certain areas including schools, healthcare facilities, recreational areas, social service and emergency facilities, ceremonial locations (such as funerals and civil ceremonies) as well as at demonstrations and rallies.
- Aug 10, 2023: The Biden Administration Office of Management and Budget requested nearly $14 billion in emergency funding that perpetuates the Biden Administration’s open borders policies. For example, $600 million was requested for FEMA’s Shelter and Services program, which provided airfare and hotels to illegal aliens. This is on top of the $363.8 spent by the program in Fiscal Year 2023.
- Dec 28, 2023: Following a trip to Mexico by Secretary of State Blinken and DHS Secretary Mayorkas, the Mexican government reported that their discussions focused on “regularizing” status – i.e., amnesty – for “Hispanic migrants who have been undocumented… and DACA beneficiaries.”
- Jan 3, 2024: The Biden Administration sued the State of Texas for enforcing a recently enacted Texas state law that allow Texas judges and magistrates to order illegal aliens to return to the foreign nation from which they entered.
You can see the full list of 64 examples here.
