House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) said he doubts President Joe Biden is the one calling the administration’s shots on immigration policy as the speaker pushes Biden to take executive action to secure the southern border.
Johnson told Fox Business host Maria Bartiromo on Friday that he and his fellow Republicans have shown Biden that he has the constitutional authority to secure the border with executive power, but said that he thinks the president’s staff is stopping him from taking action.
“He knows that he has the authority. We’ve documented it for him. 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,’” the speaker said.
“I don’t think he’s allowed to do it. I’m not sure Joe Biden is actually making these decisions,” Johnson added. “I think it’s staff around him, and they’re pushing him to hold the — or to keep the border open.”
Earlier in the interview, Johnson told Bartiromo that Biden and Homeland Security Secretary Mayorkas’ actions starting on the first day of the administration show that 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,” said Johnson. “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.”
Johnson and the White House have been sparring over border security as Republicans push the Biden administration to do more to stop the record flow of illegal immigrants into the country. Biden has asked for Congress to pass a bipartisan bill addressing the illegal immigration crisis, claiming he can’t properly act on the issue without congressional authority.
In the Democrat-controlled Senate, a bipartisan group of senators is working to hash out a deal coupling aid for U.S. allies, such as Ukraine and Israel, with border security reforms, but Johnson has already indicated it would be “dead on arrival” in the GOP-led House.
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The Republican speaker has pressed Biden to use 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, to “regain operational control of the border.”
More than eight million migrants have been encountered by Customs and Border Protection after crossing the border illegally since Biden was sworn into office in January 2021. Illegal immigrant encounters in December set the single-month record with 302,034, which was just shy of the 303,916 illegal immigrants Border Patrol agents encountered in the entire 2017 fiscal year.
Daniel Chaitin contributed to this report.
