Dem Senators Turn on Biden Admin as Border Crisis Doesn't Improve
Over the last several days, three Democratic senators have criticized the Biden administration’s failure to respond to the border crisis.
Following President Joe Biden’s address to Congress on Wednesday, Arizona Sen. Mark Kelly posted a statement to his website that read in part, “While I share President Biden’s urgency in fixing our broken immigration system, what I didn’t hear tonight was a plan to address the immediate crisis at the border, and I will continue holding this administration accountable to deliver the resources and staffing necessary for a humane, orderly process as we work to improve border security, support local economies, and fix our immigration system.”
My statement on President Joe Biden’s Joint Address to Congress tonight: https://t.co/IhGqw8zA2u
— Senator Mark Kelly (@SenMarkKelly) April 29, 2021
In a statement to Fox News following Biden’s speech, Arizona Sen. Kyrsten Sinema’s office wrote, “Sen. Sinema has been clear that she – along with Sen. Kelly – wants to see more action from the administration to address the border crisis and support Arizona border communities. She’s spoken directly with administration officials on this.”
Kelly and Sinema represent a state that’s been battered by the illegal immigration crisis, so their turning on Biden on the issue is understandable.
However, other Democrats are also acknowledging the administration needs to improve its response.
Even Democratic Sen. Mazie Hirono of Hawaii was forced to admit that Vice President Kamala Harris — whom Biden has tasked with leading the White House response to the border crisis — needs to do more. In the six weeks since Biden tapped Harris for the job, the vice president has failed to even visit the border to see the conditions first-hand. The only evidence she plans to take any action at all is a scheduled trip to Guatemala in June.
During an interview on PBS News’ “Firing Line” on Friday, host Margaret Hoover asked Hirono (whom Hoover called a “trailblazing lawmaker”), if she would urge Harris to visit the border.
“Of course,” Hirono replied.
Hoover asked why Harris hasn’t done so yet.
“I don’t know. Maybe — We have a few other things to deal with, like the pandemic and everything else, so I’m not going to point fingers at her in the sense of — I hope that she will go down to the border,” answered Hirono. “I hope that we can have a comprehensive, ‘whole of government’ approach to what we need to do to have a humane immigration system.”
“According to The Washington Post and an ABC News poll, the majority of Americans actually disapprove of President Biden’s handling of the border,” Hoover noted. “Senator, why is it so difficult for some to call the situation at the border a crisis?”
“I think the president calls it a crisis. I would call it a crisis,” Hirono answered. “We can call it a challenge. But we know what the factors are. We know what is happening. So whatever you call it, we’re going to need to deal with it. We’re going to need to address it in a humane way.”
Biden, for his part doesn’t seem to be doing anything other than trying to blame his predecessor for the problems.
During a Friday interview on“Today Show” with co-host Craig Melvin, Biden said his administration “inherited one godawful mess at the border,” according to NBC News. He blames it on “the failure to have a real transition ….”
“The two departments that didn’t give us access to virtually anything [during the transition] were the immigration and the Defense Department,” Biden told Melvin. “So we didn’t find out they had fired a whole lot of people, that they were understaffed considerably.”
I think even most Democrats would have trouble buying that as an excuse.
Melvin pointed out that in April, 170,000 people had been apprehended at the border and that 22,000 unaccompanied minors are currently in the U.S. “That’s a record. That sounds to most folks like a crisis.”
“Well look, it’s way down now. We’ve now gotten control,” declared Biden. “For example, they didn’t plan for – it comes every year – this flow … they didn’t have the beds that were available. They didn’t plan for the overflow. They didn’t plan for the Department of Health and Human Services to have places to take the kids …”
That’s a lot of Trump-blaming, even for Biden.
Here’s the reason tens of thousands of illegal immigrants have flocked to our southern border, Mr. President. You invited them. In fact, this was a central issue in your campaign. Your formal invitation can be found on your campaign website and it’s called “The Biden Plan for Securing our Values as a Nation of Immigrants.”
One of the Biden administration’s first moves was to end former President Donald Trump’s “remain in Mexico” policy and to resurrect the dangerous and foolish Obama-era policy of “catch and release.” Advertising that asylum seekers would be released into the U.S. after they’d been processed at the border to await their court dates was akin to putting up a large flashing neon invitation: “Come on over!”
No matter how hard Biden and his backers try to spin it, Americans know Trump had the border situation under control by the end of his term. All Biden had to do was maintain the policies that were in place.
What no one is saying is that importing large numbers of illegals into the country is all part of the Democrats’ strategy. At the current pace, approximately 2 million illegal immigrants will enter the country this year. One day, the party hopes each one of them will be able to vote in U.S. elections.
It’s unclear how many illegal aliens are currently living in the U.S., but estimates have run from 11 to up to almost 30 million.
A voting bloc of that size would be more than enough to sway an election. And Democrats, by providing food, shelter and medical care to this group, all paid for by U.S. taxpayers, hope to keep this group dependent on them. If it all works out as planned, Democrats will maintain their hold on power for generations to come.
And that would make the border crisis look like the country’s good old days.
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