House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) addressed his colleagues in lengthy remarks on Wednesday, accusing President Joe Biden of maintaining a “deliberately opened” border that has caused record-high immigration numbers.
In his first floor speech since being elected speaker, Johnson railed against the Biden administration’s handling of the southern border, calling on the president to use executive action to crack down on the surge of illegal immigration. His speech comes as negotiations to implement stricter border policies have been stalled in the Senate.
“We have a catastrophe at the southern border. It is because the border has been deliberately opened wide that we see the terrific horrors that are taking place across the border right now,” Johnson said in his 30-minute speech. “I’m here this morning to beg my colleagues to help us force the administration to take action.”
Johnson decried Biden for overturning several Trump-era border policies shortly after taking office, including his decision to revoke the Remain in Mexico policy that required asylum-seekers to stay in Mexico while they were processed for approval. Johnson argued the decision to rescind that policy, as well as some others, has led to the surge in illegal immigration at the southern border.
“You know why that worked so magically well?” he said, referring to Trump’s COVID-era policy. “Because it sent a message around the world that you shouldn’t pay your life savings to a cartel to traffic you through Mexico and drop you over the U.S. border — because you’re not going to be dropped over the U.S. border.”
Negotiations between Senate Republicans and Democrats have been happening for months to implement substantial border policy changes in exchange for increased military aid to Ukraine and Israel. However, those talks have been hit with snags in recent weeks, especially after former President Donald Trump came out in opposition to the deal and called on his allies on the Hill to do the same.
Still, even if the Senate can agree on a border deal, its future in the House is unclear. Johnson has already indicated the compromise agreement would be “dead on arrival” in the lower chamber — dooming its chances of passage before the text is even finalized.
Instead, Johnson has repeatedly called on Biden to take executive action to cut down on the number of illegal immigrants crossing the border — something the White House has said he lacks the power to do.
“[Biden] issued an executive order to stop [Remain in Mexico],” Johnson said. “If President Biden, by the stroke of a pen, would issue an executive order today to just simply reinstate Remain in Mexico, [Border Patrol agents] think that would stop the flow by 70%. One stroke of a pen by the president. He does not seem to care.”
Biden has recently expressed interest in implementing stricter security measures, telling supporters in South Carolina last weekend he would “shut down the border” right away if a bill passes through Congress giving him the power to do so. However, when pressed for details, the White House argued new legislation would need to pass to give Biden the enforcement tools necessary.
Republicans have seized on that argument, claiming Biden already has the power to take action — accusing the president of perpetuating an immigration crisis to use it as a campaign issue ahead of the November elections.
“The border crisis … could be solved tomorrow by Joe Biden and the Democrats. They do not want a solution,” Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) said. “And so, I don’t believe Democrats are negotiating in good faith. Nobody knows exactly what’s in this deal because they won’t release text. But there’s a reason for that. The reason you don’t release text is when the substance is so bad that the American people would hate it if they knew what was in it.”
Democrats have attacked Republicans on similar lines, claiming instead that GOP lawmakers are refusing to act on the border to boost Trump’s reelection prospects.
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“From the beginning, we’ve always known there would be a group of Republicans, including Donald Trump, that didn’t want to fix the border,” said Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT), one of the lead negotiators of the Senate border deal. “A lot of Republicans have become used to this being just merely a political issue, not an actual policy problem. And that’s hard for them to get over.”
More than 371,000 non-U.S. citizens were stopped when they attempted to enter the United States last month, including those who walked across without permission, lacked proper documents to pass through ports of entry, or were paroled in from abroad, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection data released Friday evening. The prior record of 341,392 was set in August 2023.