Any new pact on border security must have an iron-clad guarantee to build hundreds of miles of new wall, House Speaker Mike Johnson said Wednesday.
His demand comes as Senate negotiators are working on a border security deal, which is the linchpin of broader talks over President Biden’s request for $110 billion to fund Israel and Ukraine in their wars. Republicans have said they won’t approve the money for Ukraine unless Mr. Biden accepts major changes that will derail the historic levels of illegal immigration.
Speaking to radio host Hugh Hewitt, Mr. Johnson said whatever senators do must also pass the GOP-led House, and that means addressing Republicans’ demands for Trump-style policies.
“The wall is a big piece of that,” Mr. Johnson said.
He was then pressed by Mr. Hewitt, who said the wall is the crux of the deal.
“If the wall is not in there, authorized and appropriated, construction underway before anything else kicks in … I will be against it. Will that kind of language, that kind of guarantee of 900 miles of wall be in this bill or you will not support it?” Mr. Hewitt challenged.
“We’re fighting for it vigorously,” Mr. Johnson replied.
He added that the wall can’t be the only answer.
He pointed to other Trump policies, such as Remain in Mexico, which pushed asylum-seekers back across the border to wait until their immigration court dates arrived. The result was that migrants who had bogus claims gave up and went home, which helped solve the 2019 border surge.
Mr. Biden ended that policy in 2021, along with halting wall construction and erasing the Trump administration’s agreements with other countries to take back asylum-seekers who crossed their territory en route to the U.S. The result of those Biden changes has been the most chaotic border in modern history.
Democrats say the U.S. has had decades of mismanaged immigration and that other countries also have border problems. They oppose get-tough policies, saying Mr. Biden needs new tools to “manage” the flow, not curtail it.
Mr. Johnson said Border Patrol agents disagree with that approach.
He led a delegation of GOP lawmakers to the border in Texas last week and said the deputy chief of the Border Patrol compared what it’s facing with “an open fire hydrant.”
Mr. Johnson said the deputy chief told him, “I don’t need more buckets. I don’t need more funding to process illegals. I need them to turn off the flow.”
Mr. Johnson told Mr. Hewitt, “That’s what we are working to do. And the wall, to your point, Hugh, is a big piece of that.”
• Stephen Dinan can be reached at sdinan@washingtontimes.com.
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