Story highlights
Speaker Mike Johnson is pushing President Joe Biden to use executive action on the border
President Donald Trump in 2018 tried to use such an authority but was blocked by the courts
Johnson’s criticism of the immigration deal comes as Trump ramps up his own attacks
House Speaker Mike Johnson railed against the Senate’s bipartisan immigration deal Wednesday during his first floor speech as speaker, intensifying the clash between the two chambers as he continues to lay the groundwork for the House to reject the deal even though final text of an agreement has yet to be released.
He also implied President Joe Biden has powers to help combat illegal immigration that he’s not utilizing, though in at least some cases courts have opposed similar efforts in the past.
“From what we’ve heard, this so-called deal does not include transformational policy changes needed to actually stop the border catastrophe,” Johnson said.
As Johnson ramps up his pushback to the Senate deal, the speaker argued that Biden must do more to address the border crisis on his own using executive authority and accused Biden and Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas of having “designed this catastrophe.”
At one point, Johnson said that Biden has “falsely claimed” that he needs Congress to pass a new law to allow him to “close the southern border.”
However, former President Donald Trump tried to close the US southern border to asylum seekers crossing the border unlawfully while in office, invoking provisions in immigration law, but was blocked by the courts.
In 2018, Trump tried to use an authority that Johnson has cited — 212f, which gives the president broad authority to implement immigration restrictions — to clamp down on border…
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