Obama-era DHS secretary: Border bill rejection let 'the perfect be the enemy of the good'
Former Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson tells 'Your World' people should not play politics with border security.
Former President Barack Obama's Homeland Security secretary told Fox News Wednesday that Congress should never have let the Lankford-Sinema-Murphy bipartisan border bill fail and that its demise proves that politics is allowing the "perfect be the enemy of the good" in the migrant crisis.
Former DHS Secretary Jeh Johnson was pressed on whether President Biden is late or neglectful in his awareness of the border crisis compared to the Obama administration a decade ago.
Johnson said the national security officials currently expressing alarm about border security also work for Biden, therefore showing that it is a concern for the incumbent president.
"When I was in office, we were very focused on what I referred to as ‘special interest aliens' – someone who crosses our southern border from the other hemisphere," Johnson said. "And we have made great strides in detecting someone who is making their way from, say, the Middle East or the Far East, enters this hemisphere through South America and begins working their way up north."
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President Biden and former President Barack Obama. (REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque TPX IMAGES)
Johnson also appeared to fault former President Trump for the border crisis, telling "Your World" the number of illegal immigrant apprehensions rose into the millions during his term and that such a figure shows there is a larger issue at work other than simple partisan policy directives.
"No matter who the president is, there's a hemispheric shift northward because of drought, famine, corruption, crime, violence, etcetera," he said. "And what frustrates me about this debate … is a solution is at hand."
Johnson said that for all the kerfuffle around the border compromise from Sens. James Lankford, R-Okla., Kyrsten Sinema, I-Ariz., and Chris Murphy, D-Conn., there were some policy changes and enforcement provisions in the bill that would have at least somewhat eased the crisis.
"The frustrating thing about …our broken immigration system [is] there are solutions, but they are politically unobtainable because this is such a politically volatile issue," he noted.
When presented with the idea that many Republicans soured on the bill due to reported reservations from Trump, as well as claims from other lawmakers there were "holes" or flawed provisions in the deal, Johnson was unconvinced.
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"Actually, I remember having been the person who owned this problem for three years. I beg to differ. No bill is perfect," he said, calling the tanked legislation the strongest to be crafted in decades.
"Let's not [let] the perfect [be] the enemy of the good," Johnson said when asked about heavily-criticized provisions including the 5,000-migrant threshold for emergency executive authority.
In February, Trump called the bill "lunacy" during a radio interview and claimed the legislation was "very bad for [Lankford's] career."
In floor remarks that same month, Murphy claimed his bill failed partly because Trump would lose a campaign issue and GOP senators could no longer "go down to the border and dress up as border patrol officers and scream about fake outrage."
On "Your World," Johnson also rejected some of the talk surrounding whether Biden could solve the border by executive fiat – as he has been criticized for reversing most of Trump's actions with his pen – saying the executive branch cannot print money.
He also said Trump's "build the wall" rallying cry needs more nuance.
While he supports wall construction in areas where it "makes sense," Johnson indicated he would have reservations about any blanket directive to fence-off the entire Mexican border.
"I'm not interested in blaming this politician or that politician. As an American citizen, I'm interested in solving the problem," Johnson stated. "I'm not interested in Trump versus Biden: Who's-to-blame."
"Americans concerned about border security should be writing their representatives in Washington, phoning their representatives in Washington, saying, hey, there's a solution to this problem," he continued. "Vote for this solution. Let's deal with the problem. Let's stop complaining about the issue and bickering about it."