House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) accused President Biden of “absolute madness” Wednesday over his administration’s handling of immigration policy and warned of a “clear and present danger” to the US unless the migrant crisis comes to an end.
“We have a catastrophe at our southern border,” Johnson said in his first House floor speech, which came nearly 100 days after he won the speaker’s gavel in October. “From Texas to New York, waves of illegal immigrants are now overwhelming our communities.”
Johnson’s speech laid out record-shattering numbers of border crossings, spiking rates of deaths due to fentanyl overdoses and the trafficking of “vulnerable women and children” by Mexican cartels during the Biden administration — in addition to the apprehension of 361 illegal aliens flagged on terror watch lists.
“The situation at our southern border presents a clear and present danger to our national security,” Johnson declared, citing congressional testimony from FBI Director Christopher Wray about the 1.5 million “gotaways” who evaded detection on Biden’s watch when they entered the US.
Roughly the same amount have been released into the country on humanitarian parole to await court hearings, which may not take place for a decade in the future, that will determine their immigration status — an “absurd” policy, according to Johnson.
US Customs and Border Protection has encountered more than 7 million migrants on the southern border since Biden took office in January 2021, he added, noting that “35 of our 50 states, including my home state of Louisiana, don’t have a population that large.”
“Ninety-five percent of the drug overdoses in New Orleans are caused by fentanyl,” Johnson said. “In Louisiana just last week, a precious two-year-old child was found dead with fentanyl in her system.”
“Where in the world is Secretary Mayorkas in all of this?” he asked, calling out Biden’s Homeland Security secretary for acknowledging earlier this month that 85% of migrants are subsequently released into the US, while the Obama administration “detained 82% of illegal aliens.”
That figure is based on a discussion Mayorkas had with Border Patrol agents earlier this month in Eagle Pass, Texas, but Brandon Judd, president of the National Border Patrol Council, told The Post on Wednesday he was present for the remarks and the secretary had actually said the figure was “higher than 85%.”
The House Homeland Security Committee voted in the early hours of Wednesday morning to advance two articles of impeachment against Mayorkas to the floor — and Johnson said in his speech the chamber “will be moving forward swiftly” to pass them, likely as soon as next week.
Johnson also denounced Biden for having rolled back several Trump administration policies that allowed for immediate expulsion of some migrants and forced others to await their asylum court dates in Mexico.
Meanwhile, Democratic leaders in major US cities have had to scramble to provide food, housing and education to the historic influx of migrants, leading New York City Mayor Eric Adams to attack Biden directly.
“American schoolchildren have been forced into virtual schools. Why? So migrants can sleep in their school building,” Johnson said, referencing a Brooklyn high school that sent students home and let migrants shelter in their gym overnight earlier this month.
“We are an overcrowded city that already has a housing crisis to begin with, and a large homeless population to begin with,” Staten Island GOP Rep. Malliotakis told The Post.
“If the mayor doesn’t stop misinterpreting the right-to-shelter law, and [Senate Majority Leader Chuck] Schumer doesn’t actually pass a bill that will secure the border, and the president refuses to undo his executive orders, I am concerned about every park, every school, every assisted living facility, being taken from citizens to house individuals that paid the cartels thousands of dollars to be here.”
In a recent trip to the border, the House speaker said, he learned cartels make up to $3.5 million per day trafficking migrants — especially undocumented children — adding up to more than $1 billion earned annually.
“It’s all absolute madness and dismantling the safety of our communities,” he said. “President Biden and Secretary Mayorkas have designed this catastrophe.”
Biden, 81, declared Tuesday on the South Lawn that he had “done all I can do.”
“Just give me the power. I’ve asked from the very day I got into office,” he told reporters. “Give me the Border Patrol, give me the people, the judges — give me the people who can stop this and make it work right.”
But Johnson said he had told the president by phone of several solutions, including restricting the entry of illegal aliens immediately under the Immigration and Nationality Act — a decision the Obama administration made at least 19 times.
He also dismissed ongoing negotiations over a $106 billion national security supplemental package that included border policy changes, saying that leaked drafts of the bill show that up to 5,000 migrants would still be allowed in per day.
“The number should be zero,” Johnson said of the proposed legislation.
House Majority Whip Tom Emmer (R-Minn) told reporters on Wednesday that the bill would be “dead on arrival” in the lower chamber.
“I can confidently say that Border Patrol agents want him impeached,” Judd added during a roundtable discussion with Republican lawmakers Wednesday afternoon.
“He said the act of being in this country alone is not enough for an enforcement action — that’s his intent,” Judd said of Mayorkas. “All you have to do is look at the people that do not show up to court appearances. That means they violated the rules of the release and he now has an obligation to go after those individuals, but he’s not and that’s where he’s violating the law.
“If we do not impeach him, then we are allowing him to get away with encouraging the cartels to continue to advertise our services around the world. There must be accountability in our government.”