On Wednesday’s broadcast of the Fox News Channel’s “The Story,” Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-TX) said that House Speaker Rep. Mike Johnson (R-LA) is correct that President Joe Biden has the power to secure the border without congressional action and stated that President Joe Biden’s deportation changes on his first day in office “gave the impression that you can come into the United States.”
Cuellar said, “First of all, the first thing is, does the President have the [authority] to secure the border without any changes? The answer is yes. President Obama did that with Secretary Jeh Johnson where the numbers were even lower than President Trump. He deported more people. So, the authorities are there right now. The second thing that I took from Speaker Johnson, when he said that they passed some legislation. They did pass H.R. 2, but they did not take any Democrat consideration on it. And if we’re going to pass things, it’s got to be bipartisan. So, we’ve got to look at bipartisan legislation. But he is right about one thing, and I’ve said this for a long time, the President has the [authority] to secure the border right now without even changing the law.”
He added that agencies need resources, and “If you don’t have repercussions at the border, people are going to come in. What happened on the first day, he did say we’re not going to deport people except if they’re high risk and certain threats to national security, that gave the impression that you can come into the United States. You’ve got to make sure people understand that if you come to the border, there will be repercussions.”
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