Biden refused to reinstate Trump-era border policies because Mexico doesnt want that, Speaker Mike Johnson says

President Biden declined to restore the most effective Trump-era border policy — and blamed America’s southern neighbor for the massive flood of migrants into the US, House Speaker Mike Johnson recalled Thursday.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.“Things have changed,” was all Biden said when Johnson asked him to tighten border policy.“Yeah, they’ve changed, all right — I mean, by my count, I think we’ve got more than 16 million illegal aliens in the country in the last four years, and we’re going to be dealing with this for the rest of our lives,” the speaker said of the fateful move.Then-Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said he respected US sovereignty when asked in March about his relationship with Biden.“Every time I speak with President Biden, the first thing he says to me is that ou...