In the News

Rep. Mike Johnson, R-La., told Newsmax Tuesday that the Biden administration is turning a blind eye to the crisis at the southern border because it wants to turn the migrants crossing the border into Democrat voters.

“It's really shocking for people to hear, but many of our Democrat colleagues insist that there is no problem at the border,” Johnson said during an appearance on Newsmax’s “The Record with Greta Van Susteren.” “They insist that the border is not open, that they have control of the situation, and everyone knows that's not true. We had a record number of crossings, the highest single-day total ever, on May 9 — 10,300 illegals were encountered at the southern border and it's just an out of control situation.”

“These are the obvious results, and the completely foreseeable results, of policy choices,” he continued. “The Biden administration has done this intentionally. [Department of Homeland Security] Secretary [Alejandro] Mayorkas has done this intentionally. For what reason? Everybody asks me all the time. I think that ultimately they hope to turn all these illegals into voters for their side. It sounds sinister, but there's no other explanation for what's happening down there. It's an absolute humanitarian and now national security crisis — catastrophe really — and they could reverse it overnight if they wanted to, but they don't.”

Stressing that the surge of illegal immigrants is “not just a Texas problem,” Johnson, who sits on the House Judiciary Committee, said that the panel has to get the “Biden administration to enforce the existing federal law and then we've got to change and reform the asylum program that's just been decimated.”

“Since Joe Biden took office, the numbers are over 5.2 million illegal crossings,” he said. “1.5 million got aways, at least, and we think those are low estimates by Border Patrol. We had known terrorists coming across the border. We had 98 of them that were stopped just last year alone, 16 of them in the month of April of this year. Now imagine the ones that got through that were not detected. Imagine who's coming across that border in those Chinese groups. Do they have the United States’ best interest in mind? I don't think so.”

The Louisiana congressman said that America is undoubtedly a “nation of immigrants,” with an asylum program that has “always been the haven for people who are actually suffering persecution in their home country. That's who we are. We're the most benevolent country in the history of the world, by far.”

“But what's happened is that system has crumbled,” he said. “It's in shambles because it's been abused. We passed legislation but we got no Democrat votes on it to fix that, to clean up just the asylum program. Because, if you really believe in that, and you want that benevolence to continue, you have to have a sovereign country, you have to have a secure border in order to provide safe haven for others. You have to maintain the rule of law.”

He added that the United States has a legal immigration system and that people “can't just come across the border because you're economically disadvantaged. We can't afford to take everyone in in that way.”