Speaker Johnson today joined The Faulkner Focus on Fox News to discuss Leader Schumer’s failed immigration bill, President Biden’s refusal to use his executive authority to stop the border crisis, and House efforts to secure U.S. elections and prevent noncitizens from voting.
On Leader Schumer’s failed immigration bill:
H.R. 2, the Secure the Border Act, was the most stringent border security measure ever passed by Congress. We passed that through the House over a year ago. It’s been sitting on Chuck Schumer’s desk collecting dust. The reason they won’t touch it is because it would actually solve the problem.
It would reinstate Remain in Mexico, which was the policy that President Trump used to get control of this border. It would end the catch and release program. You know, they’re seeing these people at the border and they’re turning them loose into the homeland, distributing them around the country and putting them on public assistance, by the way, as they do that.
It would fix the asylum, the broken asylum process, and fix the parole process. You do those things, you solve the crisis, and the White House has no interest in doing that. And this bill that potentially will fail for a second time doesn’t do any of that. It’s not a border security bill; it’s an immigration bill and it would actually codify some of the terrible decisions and policies that President Biden has enacted. And that’s why all the Republicans are united against it.
On Biden’s refusal to use executive authority at the border:
I have presented to him [President Biden] myself, Harris, a list of at least eight statutory authorities that he has had since the day he walked in the Oval Office. Now remember, we documented 64 specific executive actions that President Biden and his administrators including Mayorkas, who we had to impeach in the House because of this, they intentionally took these actions to open the border wide. They did this by design, and that’s what’s so terrible about it. He’s had executive authority every day to reverse what he’s done, but he refuses to use it.
On preventing noncitizen voting:
The DC city council has decided they want illegals to vote in local elections. And that’s a real problem because all you have to do is reside in the District of Columbia for 30 days and you can participate in the election. That means Russian spies, that means Chinese officials, that means enemies of freedom will help decide who the mayor is in D.C. and who the council is.
We’re going to handle the DC issue because Congress has jurisdiction over that. But we also have jurisdiction over federal elections across the country. The problem is right now, if you show up at a welfare office, where the administration is telling all the illegals to go to go sign up for taxpayer benefits. Of course, when you’re there in these local offices because of the Motor Voter law that passed in the early 90s, they also give you another form.
‘Hey, would you like to register to vote?’ There’s one box that someone checks and says, I’m a U.S. citizen. Yes, in every state right now, virtually every state, you can sign up to vote by just checking that box. There’s no way to prove citizenship. Because the law currently prohibits the states from requesting. We have the SAVE Act we’ll be introducing right after the Memorial Day holiday. We’ll get that passed and that will solve that problem on the federal election basis. We’ve got to do that; we have an absolute responsibility.