on Friday admitted that the U.S.-Mexico border is not secure - despite his Homeland Security Secretary insisting it was - and demanded act to prevent further influxes.

The president was asked by a reporter if the border was secure, and replied, according to : 'No, it's not.'

In March 2021, told ABC News: 'The border is closed. The border is secure.'

The president's disavowal of his Homeland Security Secretary appeared to be in response to polls showing voters are increasingly troubled by his administration's handling of the border. With the election now less than a year away, his approval rating on handling immigration has reached an all-time low.

Biden on Friday attempted to shift the blame, and said that he had asked Congress to approve his plan for dealing with the border, but had been thwarted.

Joe Biden is seen on Friday in the White House discussing immigration. He admitted the U.S.-Mexico border was not secure

Alejandro Mayorkas, Homeland Security Secretary, in March 2021 insisted the border was 'closed' and 'secure'

And he appeared visibly angry when discussing the widely held view that his administration is failing to cope with the crisis.

'I love how I turned on TV and, 'Biden is for a free and open border, just tear down everything — everybody come, no restrictions,'' he said, sarcastically.

'I believe we need significant policy changes at the border, including changes in our asylum system to ensure that we have the authorities we need to control the border. I'm ready to act.'

Biden told congressional leaders this week during a meeting at the White House he wanted a 'big border security' bill as he tries to drive Congress to wrap up work on his $110 billion national security package for Ukraine, Israel and other needs, including the U.

S.-Mexico border.

Mayorkas has been deeply involved in Senate negotiations over the border security package, which would potentially restrict entry into the U.S. and more rapidly deport those people in the country without legal documentation.

He said that the Speaker of the House, Mike Johnson, must decide whether to work with him or block him, and accused the Republicans of 'weaponizing' the border.

'Now the question is for the Speaker and the House Republicans: Are they ready to act as well?' said Biden.

'They have to choose whether they want to solve a problem or keep weaponizing the issue to score political points against the president.

I'm ready to solve the problem. I really am.

'Massive changes, and I mean it sincerely.'

Migrants are pictured on Wednesday walking through a barbed wire fence to cross from Mexico into the United States, near Ciudad Juarez

A group of migrants cross the Rio Grande near Eagle Pass, Texas on Thursday, as golfers play a round 

Lines of migrants are seen on January 9 walking through the Mexican state of Oaxaca, bound for the U.S.-Mexico border

The Biden campaign team was likely troubled bywhich found that only 32 percent of Americans approve of Biden's handling of the border.

The poll also found that 45 percent of Americans see the border situation as a crisis, and another 30 percent view it as a serious problem.

CBS found that Americans' position on the border has shifted since September: then, 55 percent thought Biden should take a tougher line, but now that figure has risen to 63 percent.

House Republicans are attempting to impeach Mayorkas over the border situation.

Mark Green, chair of the Homeland Security Committee, is heading toward a vote on Mayorkas' impeachment by the end of the month, setting up action by the full House as soon as February - which would be a first for a Cabinet official in nearly 150 years.

Green, a Tennessee Republican, opened the second impeachment hearing saying 'no American is safe' under Mayorkas' handling of the U.S.-Mexico border, with a record number of illegal crossings.

He argued that the secretary's 'egregious misconduct and failure to fulfill his oath of office' are grounds for impeachment.

But the panel's top Democrat, Bennie Thompson of Mississippi, who has repeatedly insisted policy differences with Biden are not grounds for impeachment, was backed up by one of the witnesses, Princeton University law professor Deborah Pearlstein.

'Policy differences, no matter how profound, is exactly not what impeachment is for,' Pearlstein said.

She argued that no branch of the U.S. government has more power than the Congress to set policy and that, with years of inaction on border legislation, those powers have 'gone unused.'