House Speaker Mike Johnson released a list Tuesday detailing 64 actions President Biden has taken that wrecked the border and created the worst levels of illegal immigration in history.
The list comes as Mr. Johnson and Mr. Biden stake out opposite positions in negotiations over a national security spending bill, with the Louisiana Republican pushing for major changes to border policy, and the Democratic president resisting.
Mr. Johnson said Mr. Biden started breaking the border on his first day in office, when he canceled border wall construction and proposed an amnesty for illegal immigrants.
The president has continued with expansion of catch-and-release and most recently filed another lawsuit trying to derail Texas’ own border security efforts, Mr. Johnson said, accusing the president of “systematically” dismantling the policies and rules that had worked to control the border in the last 18 months of the Trump administration.
“On more than 60 occasions, he has manipulated the federal bureaucracy to open our borders to illegal immigrants, human trafficking, fentanyl and potential terrorists. The result is a humanitarian and national security catastrophe,” Mr. Johnson said.
The list is part of finger-pointing surrounding the high-stakes negotiations.
Mr. Johnson says given Mr. Biden broke the border, he can also fix things without turning to Congress.
“The president must use his executive authority to repair what he has broken. I am calling on him to do so,” the speaker said.
The administration rejects that notion, saying the system has been broken for years and that only Congress can solve it.
“We need Congress to make the legislative changes and provide the funding that our frontline officers desperately need,” Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said Monday as he made a trip to the border in Texas.
Mr. Johnson was at the border last week with more than 60 House Republicans to take stock of things.
His list Monday of ways Mr. Biden broke the border covers executive actions such as the botched 2021 Kabul airlift, which brought tens of thousands of Afghans to the U.S. without legal visas, and regulatory changes such as letting immigration judges close cases without having to rule against illegal immigrants.
As part of the blame game, the White House last week claimed Republicans voted to “eliminate” 2,000 Border Patrol agents.
That appears to be a reference to a budget framework calling for a cut in overall discretionary spending levels. The White House then made assumptions about where those cuts would fall, including the Border Patrol agents. GOP leaders say no such proposal was ever part of the party’s spending bills.
In fact, Mr. Biden has repeatedly called for cuts to Customs and Border Protection and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the two major agencies that police illegal immigration. Out of three budgets, he called for cuts to CBP in all three and called for cuts to ICE in two, including proposing severe reductions in ICE’s detention space.
Congress has rebuffed those cuts and approved increases instead.
Meanwhile, Mr. Biden has done a reversal with his new national security spending bill by calling for an increase in ICE’s detention capacity.
The White House also accuses Republicans of refusing to discuss Mr. Biden’s broad call for legalization of illegal immigrants, which the president proposed on his first day in office.
Republicans have indeed balked at that plan, saying that offering an amnesty will entice more illegal immigrants.
• Stephen Dinan can be reached at sdinan@washingtontimes.com.
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