Johnson: Now is not ‘the time for comprehensive immigration reform’  

Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) voiced his skepticism of a deal being crafted in the Senate to pair border and migration policy changes with Ukraine aid, and said that now is not the time for comprehensive immigration reform.

Johnson said at a press conference Wednesday morning that while there has been a lot of “thoughtful and deliberative discussion and debate” surrounding the potential deal, he has not seen any final proposal and was “anxious” to see text of the proposal.

But he dismissed any “comprehensive” immigration changes.

“It’s a complex issue. I don’t think now is the time for comprehensive immigration reform, because we know how complicated that is,” Johnson said.

“You can’t do that quickly. I do think it’s past time to secure the border. And that’s what H.R. 2 reflects,” Johnson added, referring to the House GOP border and migration policy bill that the chamber passed last year.

Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) listens to a question after a closed-door House Republican Conference meeting on Wednesday, January 17, 2024. (Greg Nash)

Johnson’s comments come ahead of a White House meeting Wednesday afternoon with other congressional leaders and President Biden.

A bipartisan group of senators have been working for weeks on a deal to pair border and migration policy changes with Ukraine aid.

The deal is expected to include changes to asylum policy, but negotiators have said that the issue of parole is a major sticking point in the talks.

Negotiators, too, would likely push back on the idea that the package amounts to comprehensive immigration reform. Any new path to citizenship, for instance, was quickly taken off the table.

The Speaker argued that all the various policy elements of H.R. 2 were necessary — including restarting the “remain in Mexico” asylum policy, reforming the parole process, and restarting construction of a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border.

“You can’t choose from among those [provisions in H.R. 2] on a menu and assume that you’re going to solve the problem,” he said.

“We don’t need more buckets. We need to reduce the flow. We know how to reduce the flow. You have to have these elements involved,” Johnson added.

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The Speaker said his position on Ukraine aid has not changed — that he wants border policy changes in addition to information about the strategy in Ukraine and how the aid would be accounted for.

“Before we even talk about Ukraine, I’m going to tell the president [what] I’m telling all of you, and we’ve told the American people: border, border, border,” Johnson said. “We have to take care of our own house. We have to secure our own border before we talk about doing anything else.”

Johnson has previously asked Biden to take executive action on border and migration policy.