Global Courant 2023-05-11 12:24:00
Sen. Josh Hawley: This is about Joe Biden
Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., discusses how the Biden administration’s border plan was to “collapse” the US immigration system on “The Ingraham Angle.”
President Biden may have quietly admitted on Wednesday evening what he and the White House have refused to say publicly about the deteriorating situation on the US-Mexico border.
Biden said on Tuesday the border situation will be “chaotic for a while” as his administration works to restore order — but speaking to reporters on the tarmac at Westchester County Airport the following day, Biden admitted that there is “chaos to come.” the border has been for a number of years.”
“Well, we’ve had chaos at the border for several years now,” the president said before boarding Air Force One in White Plains, New York. “We must fully fund border security efforts.”
He added: “Look, the goal of what we’re doing now is to make legal immigration more streamlined, illegal immigration shorter term and relocated – and moving in a direction where people know there’s a legal way to get here and no legal way. That’s what’s going on right now.”
WHITE HOUSE CLAIM REPUBLICANS ‘LITERALLY REFUSE TO ACT’ ON IMMIGRATION AS GOP PREPS VOTE ON BIG BORDER LAW
US President Joe Biden addresses reporters at Westchester County Airport on May 10, 2023 in White Plains, New York. (BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP via Getty Images)
Biden was sworn in as president in January 2021. At the time, Democrats controlled Congress with a majority in the House of Representatives and decisive control of the U.S. Senate.
In the years since the Biden administration has refused to use already allocated funds to strengthen the border, sued Arizona to remove shipping containers that helped fill gaps in the Yuma sector of the US Border Patrol, stopped the “Stay in Mexico” policy of former President Trump, and eventually Title 42 not renewed. The “Stay in Mexico” policy has since been reinstated.
On Wednesday night, the president answered several of the group’s questions about the more than 10,000 migrants detained daily at the border, the imminent expiration of Title 42 — which is expected to lead to additional migrants entering the US.
Migrants attempting to enter the US from Mexico will be detained by US Customs and Border Protection at the border in San Luis, Arizona on August 20, 2022. (Nick Utah/Getty Images)
He was also asked about Mexico’s role in the ongoing crisis and whether he would consider sending additional US troops to the border.
“I spent an hour with the president of Mexico yesterday. He was very cooperative,” Biden said.
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Biden also said that he and Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador “were in agreement” and that he was “also in favor of making sure we have stopovers in Colombia and other countries where people can make their case (for asylum) “.
March 29, 2023: Border Guard agents meet over 1,000 migrants in El Paso, Texas (Customs)
When asked if Biden would consider sending additional troops to the border, he simply replied, “Yes.”
The president has not indicated how many more he would like to send.
“The troops are there to release the Border Patrol people so they can do their jobs,” Biden noted.
Biden also appeared to blame a divided Congress for failing to adequately address border security.
“Look, I asked Congress for a lot more money for the Border Patrol. They didn’t. They’ve made it harder,” the president said.
BORDER PATROL TAKES OVER 10,000 MIGRANTS PER DAY BEFORE END OF TITLE 42, HIGHEST EVER RECORDED
He added: “What we want to do at the border is for it to work and function the way it is meant to work. And that requires us to have more immigration officers, more asylum judges, a whole host of things (like) more staff. And I try to do as much of that as possible.”
U.S. President Joe Biden walks into Air Force One at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York on May 10, 2023. (BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP via Getty Images)
House Republicans say the situation at the border rests solely on Biden as they proposed the Secure the Border Act, which would renew efforts to build a border wall, add more border guards and give them more financial incentives to do their jobs to do .
It would also end the “catch and release” policy.
At a Republican leadership press briefing this week, House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La., said Republicans have not been sidelined in the crisis, as Biden claims.
“Most of the problems we see at the border have been caused by Joe Biden himself, starting on his very first day in office as president, when he sent word around the world that the US border is open by doing things like halting construction of the wall, reinstatement of capture and release, termination of the Remain in Mexico policy, the Northern Triangle agreements,” Scalise said.
BIDEN ADMINISTRATOR SPEAKS ‘STRIGHTER’ ABOUT BORDER BEFORE END OF TITLE 42 – BUT MIGRANTS ARE NOT LISTENING
He continued, “And so, as House Republicans, we’ve said we’re not going to sit on the sidelines as if President Biden is causing this problem. We are really going to work on solving this problem. And so tomorrow, the day the title 42 expires, we’re bringing HR 2, the Securing the Border Act, a bill that actually focuses on solving the problem so we can get back to the rule of law and have a secure border in America , restoring a legal path to get into this country.”
A U.S. Border Patrol agent checks identification of immigrants as they await processing by the U.S. Border Patrol after they cross the border from Mexico on Dec. 30, 2022 in Yuma, Arizona. (Qian Weizhong/VCG via Getty Images)
More than a dozen immigration groups have called the Secure the Border Act a “vigorous and serious” effort to curb mass migration at the border.
The president has threatened to veto it.
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Once Title 42 expires, border officials have said they could see a surge of up to 14,000 encounters per day.
The more than 10,000 migrants detained both Monday and Tuesday were the highest one-day totals ever recorded, Customs and Border Protection sources told Fox News.
Fox News’ Chris Pandolfo and Bill Melugin contributed to this report.
