Speaker Johnson urges Biden to use executive powers to crack down on border crisis

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House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., is urging President Biden to use his executive authority to impose strict measures to combat the ongoing migrant crisis at the U.S. southern border.

"The wide-open border has caused unspeakable human tragedy for migrants and certainly for our own citizens. During FY2023, CBP seized ‘enough fentanyl to kill the entire U.S. population,’ and fentanyl poisoning is now the leading cause of death for Americans aged 18-45. Countless children and adults have been victims of human trafficking and cartels have been emboldened and enriched," Johnson wrote.

"Local communities have been devastated and terrorists and dangerous criminals have entered illegally and dispersed across our country. We are now more vulnerable to a terrorist attack on our homeland than ever."

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House Speaker Mike Johnson, right, wrote to President Biden urging him to take executive action on the border. (Getty Images)

Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officials warned this week that the thousands of migrants coming across the border daily was straining their resources to critical levels, as communities along the border continue to also be stretched thin.

"All of this is the direct result of your administration’s policies," Johnson wrote. "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, ignoring existing restraints on the abuse of parole, and halting border wall construction."

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Customs and Border Protection officials have said their resources are strained by the tidal wave of migrants seeking asylum. (Fox News)

He called on Biden to impose an executive order empowering border agents to "turn back or detain all illegal aliens encountered between ports of entry," as well as vastly narrowing parole authority for migrants.

Johnson also demanded that Biden reinstate the Trump administration’s controversial Remain in Mexico policy, strengthen expedited removal processes and resume construction of the border wall.

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Republicans in the House and Senate have forced the White House to the negotiating table on border security by holding up Biden’s $110 billion supplemental aid package for Ukraine, Israel and other causes. The bill also includes funding for the border, but GOP lawmakers argued that the money is meaningless without significant policy changes.

Migrants flee through a gap being repaired in the border wall in Lukeville, Arizona, on Dec. 5. (Fox News)

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Johnson has maintained both in public and in private that House Republicans would not agree to Ukraine funding unless the Senate takes up their marquee border security bill known as H.R. 2.

When asked for a response, a White House spokesperson pointed to instances of Biden requesting additional funding for border security and arguing that "House Republicans have refused to fund our border security at the levels we need."

"They refused to provide the resources we requested in 2022 and in 2023. For example, in Fiscal Year 2022 and 2023, President Biden requested additional funds to hire more Border Patrol agents, House Republicans voted against those measures. In August 2023, House Republicans refused to take up the President’s emergency funding request for border security – instead, they put forward a CR that would have cut 800 CBP agents. When President Biden presented Congress with another supplemental request for border security in October, House Republicans refused to take it up. Instead, Speaker Johnson and House Republicans decided to go home in mid-December," the spokesperson told Fox News Digital in a statement after publication.

"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."

Referencing the ongoing negotiation between Senate Republicans and the White House, the spokesperson said Biden was "working to find a bipartisan agreement that will make a real difference at the border."