Speaker Johnson urges Biden to take executive action on the border

Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) is asking President Biden to take executive actions related to the border, including implementing stricter immigration enforcement policies and restarting construction of a U.S.-Mexico border wall.

The request, sent in a Thursday letter, comes as his colleagues in the Senate were unable to come to an agreement on border policy changes as a condition for additional Ukraine aid before leaving for a holiday recess.

“While a bipartisan group of Senators has begun extensive negotiations over the past few weeks to try to find a compromise, they have not yet been able to finalize an agreement,” Johnson said in the letter. “Statutory reforms designed to restore operational control at our southern border must be enacted, but the crisis at our southern border has deteriorated to such an extent that significant action can wait no longer. It must start now, and it must start with you.”

“I urge you to immediately take executive actions available to you under existing immigration laws to stem the record tide of illegal immigration,” Johnson said.

The Speaker called for executive actions to “turn back or detain all illegal aliens encountered between ports of entry,” ending the so-called catch-and-release policy; grant parole solely on a case-by-case-basis rather than for entire classes of migrants; reinstate asylum cooperative agreements and negotiate with Mexico to reinstitute the “Remain in Mexico” program; expand the use of expedited removal; and restart construction of the wall on the U.S.-Mexico border.

Johnson also referenced a border law that conservatives have used as the core of a “dereliction of duty” impeachment argument against Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.

“I also urge you to utilize Section 212(f) of the Immigration and Nationality Act to regain operational control of the border,” Johnson wrote. “That provision empowers the President to ‘suspend the entry of all aliens or any class of aliens as immigrants or nonimmigrants, or impose on the entry of aliens any restrictions he may deem to be appropriate’ if the President ‘finds that the entry of any aliens or of any class of aliens into the United States would be detrimental to the interests of the United States.’” 

Asked in a press conference on Thursday whether Biden could take any other unilateral action to address the flow of migrants into the country, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre — who said she had not seen Johnson’s letter yet — indicated that the president could not take any more unilateral actions, and said that Congress needs to approve more funding.

“I mean, look, we asked for more Border Patrol, right … And you got Republicans in Congress, who, especially in the House, who want to cut back, they actually want to do the opposite of what the President is trying to do. And so look, the President has done everything that he can, right, on his own,” Jean-Pierre said.

In a separate statement, White House spokesperson Angelo Fernández Hernández turned the blame back on Republicans, saying they had refused to pass measures to adequately fund border security.

“If Speaker Johnson and House Republicans had their way, there would be 2,000 fewer CBP agents and officers at the border – just look at the bill they voted for in May 2023,” he said.

He added, “If Speaker Johnson and House Republicans want to real solutions, they should provide DHS the resources it needs – not seek to defund it.”

Johnson’s deputy chief of staff for communications, Raj Shah, fired back in a statement.

“The White House’s insistence that ‘the President has done everything that he can on his own’ to secure the border is an insult to the American people. In fact, it has been this administration’s policies – that President Biden can reverse – that have led to the historic crisis we are seeing on a daily basis,” Shah said. “As Speaker Johnson stated in his letter to the President, the administration must take action immediately to secure our southern border.”

In the letter, Johnson cited record encounters with migrants on the southern border and pointed to the fentanyl poisoning epidemic.

“All of this is the direct result of your administration’s policies,” Johnson wrote to Biden. “You have clearly undermined America’s sovereignty and security by ending the Remain in Mexico policy, reinstating catch-and-release, suspending asylum cooperative agreements with other nations, revoking existing restraints on the abuse of parole, and halting border wall construction.”

“You also undermined Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) core mission, and even created a smartphone app to facilitate the release of border crossers into the United States,” Johnson wrote, referencing the CBP One app that streamlines processing of migrants.

Johnson mentioned a bill passed by House Republicans earlier this year, the H.R. 2 Secure the Border Act, and dinged the Senate for not bringing up the legislation or coming to a compromise agreement on border policies as part of the Ukraine funding package.

Updated at 4:51 p.m.