Republicans are admonishing President Biden over his handling of the rapidly spiraling situation at the US border — as well as his administration’s refusal to call the matter a crisis.
In separate tweets responding to the same report that Customs and Border Protection would be shutting down three highway checkpoints in Arizona due to a need for increased border personnel, Sens. Ted Cruz (R-Tx.) and Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) slammed the current administration’s handling of immigration matters.
“How much more will it take for the Biden administration to admit there is a crisis on the border?” Cruz asked.
“The border is approaching full-blown crisis, and the Biden Admin’s response is … nothing,” Hawley added.
Biden, in undoing former President Donald Trump’s border initiatives, has set off a new surge at the US border of Central American and Mexican illegal migrants, including thousands of unescorted children.
In his first month in office, Biden ended construction of Trump’s signature border wall and began to end the “Remain in Mexico” policy under which about 71,000 Central American asylum applicants were awaiting rulings in Mexico.
He issued an order affirming the 2012 Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, which gives work permits and protection from deportation to people brought illegally to the US as minors.
He has also proposed legislation that would create a path to citizenship for the estimated 11 million illegal immigrants in the US.
While insisting that the border was not facing a crisis, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said earlier this month that the problems the agency did face should be blamed on the previous administration — despite data showing migrants flooding the border because they believe Biden will welcome them with open arms.
The administration’s response to immigration-related matters thus far has caused considerable outrage from Republicans.
At a press conference Tuesday, House GOP Conference Chair Liz Cheney (R-Wy.) argued that the blame lay solely with the current occupant of the White House.
“Policy has consequences,” Cheney, the No. 3 House Republican, began, “When you say that you’re not going to enforce our immigration laws, when you say that you’re not going to build a border wall, it has consequences. We’re seeing the tragic consequences of that right now at the border.”
“We are going to be very focused as a conference on what’s happening at the border, on working to make sure that, as the Biden administration refuses to open schools, they have instead decided to open the border and to let in thousands of people potentially who have got COVID. You’ve got children at the border that have been separated again from their parents, and being ‘heartbroken’ isn’t a policy.”
Last week, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell blamed Biden’s “sweeping left-wing amnesty plan” for the escalating crisis.
“Republicans just spent four years making major headway on the security and humanitarian crises on our border,” the top ranking elected Republican said from the Senate floor on Wednesday, “It took serious policy changes. It took international diplomacy with multiple countries. It took border enforcement.”
“The American people would be better served if the Biden Administration had chosen to build on this progress, instead of rapidly trying to tear it down.”