Johnson Rips Rumored Biden Border Actions as ‘Election Year Gimmicks’

House Speaker Mike Johnson on Thursday dismissed reports that President Joe Biden may implement executive actions to secure the border, suggesting such efforts would merely amount to a bid to boost his electoral chances in 2024.

Reports emerged earlier this week that Biden may seek to unilaterally raise the criteria for seeking asylum and to limit requests to alien arrivals at ports of entry. Biden previously contended that he needed action from Congress to secure the border, a position Republicans rejected, arguing that he could pursue executive actions to the same effect. Amid news that Biden may make such moves, Johnson expressed skepticism that he would do so in earnest.

"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," Johnson said, according to The Hill. "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."

Johnson, for his part, called on Biden to reimplement former President Donald Trump's "Remain in Mexico" policy, which required asylum seekers to remain out of the country until their court date. Biden rescinded the policy early in his presidency.

Polling data suggests the public largely does not approve of Biden's approach to immigration thus far, with 31.2% of the public backing his handling of the subject, according to RealClearPolitics. A further 64.5% disapprove.