(ConservativeSense.com) – Republican Speaker of the House Mike Johnson is putting pressure on President Joe Biden and his administration to use executive action to secure the border, including stricter policies for immigration enforcement and resuming construction of the notorious border wall started by former President Donald Trump.
In a letter sent to the White House on Thursday, Dec. 21, Johnson wrote that while a group of Senators from both parties “began extensive negotiations” throughout the last few weeks looking for “a compromise,” the lawmakers haven’t “been able to finalize an agreement.” Johnson told the president that “statutory reforms” have to be enacted in order “to restore operational control” at the US-Mexico border and that the ongoing crisis “has deteriorated” to the point that the Executive Branch “can wait no longer” to take “significant action.”
The action “must start now,” Johnson wrote, and it must start with Biden himself. He went on to urge the president to take any immediate “executive actions available” to him “under existing immigration laws” in order to stop the “record tide” of illegal immigrants flowing into the US.
On the same day as Johnson’s letter, Customs and Border Protection said the influx of immigrants who are using new methods and means to make it over the southern border is pushing the group to its financial limits, stretching resources to the breaking point. Acting commissioner Troy A. Miller said that the current level of encounters seen “across the southwest border” presents “a serious challenge” to their personnel.
In his letter, Johnson also urged the president to consider utilizing a specific section in the Immigration and Nationality Act to take control of the border again. Section 212(f) of the act gives the president the power to block any class of aliens from entering the country or impose any restrictions on their entry deemed appropriate if the president finds such entry “would be detrimental” to US interests.
On the Monday and Tuesday before Johnson’s letter, around 12,600 immigrants were intercepted by border control. Such numbers are becoming the new standard.
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