Speaker Johnson calls Biden’s Border Plan a ‘Charade’

House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., criticized President Joe Biden’s new border plan on Tuesday, calling it mere window dressing.

Speaking at his weekly press conference, Johnson reminded the public that Biden had previously claimed he had done all he could four months ago.

“He tried to convince us all this time that there was no way he could possibly fix the mess,” Johnson said. “Remember that he engineered it.”

Biden’s executive order, issued on Tuesday, prevents migrants from being granted asylum when U.S. officials determine that the southern border is overwhelmed. The order is expected to lead to the closure of much of the nation’s southern border at midnight.

However, Johnson pointed out that Biden and Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas had previously issued 64 executive orders to open up the border.

“They engineered the open border,” Johnson stated. “They did it intentionally. There’s no question about it. Now he wants to issue some weak executive order to try to address the issue. It’s window dressing. Everybody knows it.”

Johnson suggested that if Biden truly cared about the border, he would have issued the executive order much earlier.

“We don’t know what’s in this,” Johnson said. “The devil will definitely be in the details here.”

However, Johnson speculated that the executive order would likely overlook the broken asylum process, reinstate the remain in Mexico policy, and implement policies aimed at ending catch and release — all of which Republicans had addressed in a border bill voted on 14 months ago.

“Those are the reasons that this catastrophe has been allowed to continue,” Johnson concluded.

Information from the Associated Press was used in this report.