Biden refused to reinstate Trump-era border policies because “Mexico doesn’t want that,” spokesman Mike Johnson says.

President Biden refused to restore the most effective border policy of the Donald Trump era and blamed the southern neighbor of the United States for the great flood of migrants into the United States, House Speaker Mike recalled on Thursday Johnson.

Johnson (R-La.) told The Post in an interview that Biden, 81, refused to reverse course and reinstate his predecessor’s “Let’s go back to Mexico” policy even after the migrant trails they started breaking records in late 2023 and 2024.

“‘Just go back to ‘Stay in Mexico,'” Johnson, 52, recounted his pleas to the president. “I begged Biden myself, personally, to do it. And he said he wouldn’t.”

“‘It’s complicated,'” Biden responded flatly, in Johnson’s account. “‘Mexico doesn’t want this'”.

“I said, ‘You can make it less complicated, just show a little leadership,'” the speaker continued. “‘With all due respect, sir, you are the president of the United States. It doesn’t matter what Mexico wants. You tell them.’”

The Trump administration launched “Remain in Mexico” to have migrants wait for their immigration court hearings south of the US border, rather than inside the US.

By contrast, the Biden administration released more than 85 percent of migrants who crossed the border into the United States, clogging the immigration court docket with a record 3 million cases and forcing some applicants to ‘asylum 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 had over 16 million illegal aliens in the country in the last four years, and we’re going to deal with that for the rest of our lives,” the speaker said of the fateful move.

Then-Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said he respected U.S. sovereignty when asked in March about his relationship with Biden.

“Every time I talk to President Biden, the first thing he tells me is that our relationship has to be on an equal footing,” López Obrador told CBS News’ “60 Minutes.”

The House speaker and other Republicans have said law enforcement officials credit “Stay in Mexico” with reducing the large influx of asylum seekers and others crossing the border by as much as 70 percent during the Trump administration.

On Wednesday, Vice President Kamala Harris also refused to take responsibility for policy outcomes during a tense interview with Fox News host Bret Baier.

“Looking back, do you regret the decision to rescind ‘Remain in Mexico’ early in your administration?” Baier asked.

Harris, 59, deflected, pointing to at least two immigration bills that failed to even clear one chamber of Congress, faced Democratic opposition and still would have allowed up to 1 .8 million migrants to the US per year.

Unlike their predecessor, Biden and Harris have supported a fast-track asylum process that has brought at least 6 million known migrants to the United States. Nearly 2 million “runaways” have also evaded attention as they entered the country.

Since then, his administration has canceled hundreds of thousands of asylum cases, in a move that essentially grants a “mass amnesty” to clear the backlog.

“I’ve made several trips to the border, to hot spots from San Diego to southeast Texas,” Johnson told The Post on Thursday. “And the (law enforcement) stories are that they weren’t even allowed to count the people they saw.”

“(GOP Rep.) Andy Barr of Kentucky was there on a trip about three months ago and he was just exasperated,” Johnson said. “Border Patrol agents … saw a group of nine young men, military age in ability and appearance, and observed them, they were about 20 yards away … and they went into the woods.”

“They (lawmakers) stand with this group of Border Patrol agents. And they said, ‘Are you going to do something?'” the Republican continued. “And then they (the migrants) disappear into the woods. And they said, “Well, then, how do you account for these nine? … These nine, are these your “getaways?”’”

“They (border agents) said, ‘No, they don’t.’ They don’t make the list’”.

“What do you mean?” the confused GOPers asked, according to Johnson. “They escaped.”

“We can’t count them unless we can see them visibly disappear over the horizon and know they didn’t turn around and cross the border,” Johnson said border agents told lawmakers.

“We have dangerous people and terrorists and all that, and that’s why the FBI director has testified several times, all the red lights are flashing,” Johnson said, referring to the recent indictment of an Afghan man in Oklahoma accused of planning a terrorist attack on US soil for Election Day 2024.

“The enemy is among us. Here,” the House spokesman warned, criticizing Biden, Harris and Cabinet officials for allowing the high-risk entries.

“The border catastrophe was orchestrated by Harris and (Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro) Mayorkas, which is why we took the extreme step of impeaching him in the House,” Johnson said, “because desperate times call for desperate measures.”