On Monday, the mainstream media devoted a considerable amount of attention to an eye-opening new claim from White House sources that President Joe Biden was, at long last, considering executive action to try and quell the Biden border crisis.
For instance, as Axios reported at the time, “One bold move that Biden has considered… is an executive order that would dramatically stanch the record flow of migrants into the Southwest.”
“This could even happen in the two weeks before the [State of the Union] address,” they also wrote, “allowing Biden to say he took action while Republicans just talk.”
Two days later, Politico shared that Biden was “considering a string of new executive actions and federal regulations” which “would represent a sweeping new approach to an issue that has stymied the White House.”
As my RedState colleague Brad Slager observed, the news “undercuts the past few weeks of claims that Biden was sitting eagerly and waiting on Congress to pass legislation so he could finally take some action.”
It also undercut years of statements from the Biden administration that his “hands are tied” and, alternatively, that there was “no border crisis.”
Simply put, Biden knows it’s an election year and that time is running out as far as a majority of voters are concerned for him to do the right thing. So to save face, he’s now considering Doing Something™ he previously (and wrongly) stated he did not have the power to do.
READ: Woke Screws Come Loose As Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson Melts Down During Border Crisis Presser
Needless to say, the reports of Biden considering some conveniently-timed election-year action on the border issue as a way to one-up Republicans got the attention of House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.), who took off the gloves in a statement released Thursday afternoon.
In it, Johnson said that the voters whom Biden is trying to fool will not be, and also urged him to enact “critical reforms” including putting former President Donald Trump’s “Remain in Mexico” policy back in place:
House Republicans have been sounding the alarm about the catastrophic effects of President Biden’s open border policies since he began his term. Last year, I sent a letter to the President to demand he take immediate executive action. He has thus far ignored my demands, and the pleas from big city mayors, border state governors, and the American people.
Now, in an election year, after the president has surrendered the border to cartels and smugglers, after tens of thousands of Americans have tragically lost their lives due to fentanyl poisoning, after countless unaccompanied minors and young people have been subjected to human trafficking, and after millions of illegal aliens have been scattered by the Biden administration throughout our country – the President suddenly seems interested in trying to make a change using the legal authority that he claimed until recently didn’t exist.
Americans have lost faith in this President and won’t be fooled by election year gimmicks that don’t actually secure the border. Nor will they forget that the President created this catastrophe and, until now, has refused to use his executive power to fix it.
These reports also underscore just how brazenly and intentionally President Biden misled the public when he claimed he had done everything in his power to secure the border. Specifically, the President’s alleged desire to invoke Section 212(f) of the Immigration and Nationality Act, which the White House dismissed using for months, is particularly telling.
If these reports are true and the President intends to take action, he can show he’s serious by changing more than asylum policy. He should begin by reinstituting the “Remain in Mexico” policy and ending his administration’s abuse of the parole system, along with other critical reforms.
My statement regarding President Biden finally admitting he has the authority to address the border catastrophe he has created: pic.twitter.com/GUWeeb05pW
— Speaker Mike Johnson (@SpeakerJohnson) February 22, 2024
In a particularly delicious twist, Biden’s power to shut down the border (if he decided to do so) stems in part from a Trump-era border case that went to the Supreme Court (Trump v. Hawaii). In it, the majority ruled, as explained by former immigration judge Matt O’Brien, that under Section 1182(f) of the Immigration and Nationality Act, Trump had the authority “to temporarily suspend the admission of certain classes of aliens into the United States.”
So it’s pretty ironic here that Biden, who for the entirety of his presidency and even before called Trump and his supporters “racists” and “bigots” for wanting to secure the border, is now considering taking some of the very types of actions he would slam Trump over if the roles were reversed. Further, Biden can do so in part because Trump, during his own administration, fought back against Democrat critics (like Biden) and their lawsuits to ensure he and future presidents would have that power.
You couldn’t make this stuff up if you tried. You just couldn’t.
Related: Speaker Mike Johnson Declares So-Called ‘Border Security’ Bill Dead on Arrival
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