1. United States
2. Texas
3. Letter

Greetings. I’m a voting constituent in rural west Texas. Pardon me while I attempt to learn this new method of negotiating. 2/24/23 House Speaker Mike Johnson argued in writing, “America is the most compassionate nation in the world, but our immigration system is broken. Reforming that system is a job for Congress.” In October 2023 Speaker Johnson said, “[W]e must come together and address the broken border.” December 2023 Speaker Johnson wrote to President Biden, stressing the need for “statutory reforms.” So Democratic leaders, including Biden, ultimately agreed to sweeping reforms and endorsed bipartisan legislative changes, resulting in a major piece of bipartisan legislation, that no one was totally happy with. Then Speaker Johnson feinted again: Forget legislation, the White House should tackle the issue through executive actions. Speaker Johnson complained a month ago the president’s reluctance to take executive actions on border policy reflected a degree of bad faith on the administration’s part: If Biden were sincerely interested in addressing the issue, he’d take unilateral action, instead of pushing Congress to take the kind of steps Johnson wanted Congress to take before he changed his mind. This week, with the door apparently closed on legislative solutions, there were multiple reports about the White House “exploring options that President Joe Biden could deploy on his own without congressional approval.” Yay, finally the help you’re crying for is on the way. Wrong: Speaker Johnson is bobbing and weaving again. Politico this week reported on Speaker Johnson complaining about Biden preparing to take the steps he urged Biden to take. “Speaker Mike Johnson is blasting the Biden administration’s consideration of executive action to limit migrant crossings at the border as “election year gimmicks.” ... “The president suddenly seems interested in trying to make a change using the legal authority that he claimed until recently didn’t exist,” Johnson (R-La.) said in a statement first obtained by POLITICO.” Yowzer. I don’t even know where to go with this. And obviously the Speaker doesn’t either. Does he not understand how language is supposed to work?