WASHINGTON—As the crisis along the U.S. border with Mexico continues to see thousands of illegal aliens flowing into the country, many of whom are young single men, both Republican and Democrat lawmakers are blaming one another for the crush of illegal immigration.
Rep. Pete Aguilar (D-CA) along with many other members of the House Democratic Caucus are blaming their Republican colleagues for causing and fueling the crisis at the border, saying that House Republicans are at fault for refusing to pass border security measures to fund Homeland Security departments like ICE and Customs and Border Protection (CBP).
“How serious is the Biden Administration in securing the border, because the argument can be made that they are failing the American people by not securing the border right now,” was a question posed to Rep. Aguilar during a press conference on immigration reform.
Rep. Aguilar responded to the question by stating: “If Republicans were serious about this, they would support $2.3 Billion in ICE funding, $5 additional billion in Customs and Border Patrol. We are not going to fix this by building walls. We are going to fix this by using broader use of technology, manpower, immigration judges, humanitarian assistance, and aid to our local communities who are dealing with the frontline impacts. Speaker Johnson doesn’t believe in anything comprehensive when it comes to the border and immigration.”
House Democrats like Aguilar do not support a border wall, but President Biden recently announced that his administration was going to allow for the construction of the border wall.
Rep. Jared Moskowitz (D) acknowledged that the border crisis is indeed a crisis, "but the problem is right now, how can we fix the border when we cannot fix Congress?"
"We have members of here that are literally saying out loud, some of my colleagues across the aisle, that they do not want to fix the problem at the border because they do not want to give Democrats a win," Rep. Moskowitz added, saying, "We like to not solve problems" in Washington, an attitude prevailing for decades under multiple presidents and likely referencing the hardline stance of Republicans such as Representatives Byron Donalds (R-FL) and Cory Mills (R-FL), who have said "secure the border or shut down the government."
Florida Rep. Maxwell Frost belives that the Biden administration is “doing a good job with what they have,” but asserts that to fix the immigration problem, laws need to be changed quickly.
“We need to change the laws, we need to do it quickly., not just with the border itself, but with our immigration system, and we need to make sure that the border –that our process is humane and orderly.,” said Rep. Frost in response to The Floridian’s request for comment.
But as we mentioned House Republicans disagree and believe that the border crisis is President Biden’s fault, and that the president could sign an executive order reimplementing the successful "Remain in Mexico" immigration measure that former President Donald Trump first implemented.
“Its completely 100% the Biden administration’s fault. The funding did not change, policy changed. This whole thing about funding is a bunch of $%&! He knows what he has to do, he refused to do it. It’s done on purpose. Biden wants more funding so he can process more people. That’s not controlling the border,” said Rep. Carlos Gimenez to The Floridian.
Rep. Gimenez supports impeaching Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.
Rep. Gimenez’s echoed what Senator Marco Rubio told The Floridian when he said the crisis began the moment Biden took office. Sen. Rubio was asked to compare the immigration crisis of 2013 to the current influx of illegal aliens streaming across the U.S. border.
“It was a very different situation back then, you didn’t have 10,000 people a day coming in. This is already 6 or 7 million people on top of what was already here. It’s a different situation. We are in the midst of an all-out crisis,” said Sen. Rubio. “Well, it all started when Biden took over, literally in January is when you see the spike happened. He encouraged people to come,”
House Republicans have already dismissed a bipartisan immigration reform measure that Oklahoma Sen. Ray Lankford has proposed.
