Johnson (R-La.) told The Post in an interview that Biden, 81, refused to reverse course and reinstate his predecessor’s “Remain in Mexico” policy even after migrant crossings began shattering records in late 2023 and into 2024.
“Just do ‘Remain in Mexico’ again,” Johnson, 52, recounted his entreaties to the president. “I begged Biden myself, personally, to do that. And he said he wouldn’t.”
“It’s complicated,” Biden, 81, responded flatly, in Johnson’s retelling. “Mexico doesn’t want that.”
“I said, ‘You can make it less complicated — you just show some leadership,’” the speaker went on. “‘With all due respect, sir, you’re the president of the United States. It doesn’t matter what Mexico wants. You tell them.’”
The Trump administration rolled out “Remain in Mexico” to make migrants await their immigration court hearings south of the US border, rather than the American interior. By contrast, the Biden administration released more than 85% of migrants who crossed the border into the US, jamming up the immigration court docket with an all-time high of 3 million cases and forcing some asylum seekers to wait up to a decade for hearings.
“The border catastrophe was orchestrated by Harris and by [Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro] Mayorkas, which is why we took the extreme step of impeaching him in the House,” Johnson said, “because desperate times called for desperate measures.”