Speaker meets Biden and tells him there must be change at the border

House Speaker Mike Johnson called for wholesale changes in border policy as he huddled with President Joe Biden and congressional leaders in talks at the White House over billions the president wants for Ukraine and Israel.

Meeting at the White House for his second time as Speaker, Johnson described a ‘national security and humanitarian catastrophe’ at the border, something he said he articulated to the president. ‘There’s concern about safety, security, and sovereignty of Ukraine, but the American people have those same concerns about our own domestic sovereignty and our safety, and our security,’ he said following the conclusion of a meeting between the president and the ‘big four’ congressional leaders.

He called for a return to the Trump Administration’s ‘remain in Mexico ‘ policy and the ‘end of catch and release.’ ‘We’re not insistent on a particular name of a piece of legislation, but we are insistent that the elements have to be real. The House is ready to act. But the legislation has to solve the problem,’ he said.

His comments came on a day the House voted to condemn Biden on the border crisis. Biden met with the leaders about his stalled $106 billion supplemental funding request. It includes funds for Ukraine, which have been stalled since the near year amid its fierce war against dug-in Russian invaders, as well as funds to Israel, humanitarian aid for the Palestinians, and border funding.

There are deep divides on how to address the border crisis, and a number of Republicans have raised concerns about further U.S. Ukraine aid, calling for more oversight and urging against any ‘blank check.’ Johnson, who holds a razor-thin margin in the House, spoke in generalities about Ukraine.

‘We understand the necessity about Ukraine funding and we want to say that the status quo is unacceptable. We need [the] Commander in Chief of this country, the President of the United States, to show strength on the world stage, not weakness. ‘We cannot continue with the current status quo. We understand the importance of what’s been needed,’ said Johnson.

Then he appeared to call for greater accountability for U.S. aid. ‘There are certain things that are that are needed to ensure that we need the questions answered about the strategy, about the endgame, and about the accountability of the precious treasure in America,’ he said. ‘We understand that all these things are important, but we must insist must that the border be the top priority.’

With Johnson stopping short of bashing the proposal, Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer, who spoke separately along with House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, sounded an optimistic tone. ‘There’s a large amount of agreement around the table, that we must do Ukraine and we must do [the] border,’ Schumer said. ‘I am more optimistic than ever before that we can come to an agreement.

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