“Mexico will do what we tell them to do.” With those words, the Speaker of the US House of Representatives, Mike Johnson, spoke today about the immigration issue.
At a press conference, after the House passed a new short-term budget extension that will keep part of the federal agencies running until March 8 and another part until 22, to avoid a partial government shutdown, the Republican Johnson, one of the most outspoken critics of the Joe Biden administration and one of the most fervent admirers of former President Donald Trump, spoke about the immigration issue, which Republicans demand to resolve in exchange for approving a definitive budget.
Johnson said he spoke with Biden and pointed out the laws he can use to restrict the flow of migration. He urged him to reinstate the Remain in Mexico program, which Trump applied, and which forced asylum seekers to wait on Mexican soil until the time came to appear at their hearings for their cases to be heard. The Biden administration ended that policy. Johnson claimed that only that program would reduce migration by 70%.
However, according to Johnson, Biden’s response was that he could not do it because “Mexico would not agree.” The Republican told the press what he replied: “Mr. President. We are the United States. Mexico will do what we tell them to do.”
Earlier, in an interview with Fox News, Johnson referred to the conversation with Biden in similar terms, although he omitted the part of “Mexico will do what we tell them to do.”
On Sean Hannity’s program, Johnson said he mentioned to Biden the Remain in Mexico program, which the president said Mexico would not approve and that he retorted: “You are the president of the United States. Act like it.”
Republicans insist on demanding greater immigration restrictions in exchange for approving a budget that includes aid for Ukraine and Israel, which has put the Biden administration in trouble.
The president traveled today to Eagle Pass, in Texas, to see first-hand the situation at the border. It is the second time since he took office (2021), that he moved to the border, in an indication of the importance that today, in view of the November elections, the immigration issue has.
Trump, for his part, traveled to Brownsville, one of the areas with the most border crossings. From there, he called Biden “probably the most incompetent president we have ever had. He is allowing thousands of people from China, Iran, Yemen, Congo, Syria and many other nations to enter. The United States is being invaded by Biden’s migrant crime.”
During fiscal year 2023, more than 2.4 million detentions of migrants were recorded on the southern border of Mexico, a record figure.
He also said that the number of migrants in the United States could reach “18 million by the time [Biden] leaves office. Fortunately, the biggest risk we have is nine months. It’s a long time. A lot of bad things can happen.”
The tycoon, as he did in his 2016 and 2020 campaigns, accused that the migrants “come from prisons, from mental institutions (…) and are terrorists. They are being allowed to enter our country. And that is horrible.”
In contrast, he claimed, during his term he used a hard hand with the undocumented. “When someone broke the law, we captured them and deported them. We did a great job. And then there was an election (…) and from that moment on a lot of bad things started to happen. The situation changed in Texas and everywhere,” he said. *With information from EFE
Source: El Universal
