Immigration crisis rising
GOP pols, advocates say Biden needs to keep border buttoned up
The immigration crisis at the border is cresting and could spill into every corner of the nation, Republican members of Congress and advocates warn.
“It’s almost the biggest story out there and it’s the biggest story Joe Biden doesn’t want people to notice,” Jessica Vaughn, of the conservative Center for Immigration Studies, told the Herald Monday.
She spoke on the same day House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy and others visited the Texas border.
The 13-person Republican congressional delegation traveled to El Paso following higher numbers of crossings at the U.S.-Mexico border, including thousands of migrant children arriving without their parents.
“This crisis is created by the presidential policies of this new administration,” McCarthy, R-Calif., said during a news conference.
McCarthy blamed the recent influx on President Biden’s efforts to undo former President Donald Trump’s immigration restrictions.
Vaughn cited the same problem, adding no matter if you loved or hated Trump, his policies helped control the flood of immigrants at the southern border.
“President Biden should be holding the line and restoring policies the Trump administration imposed,” she said, adding requiring immigrants to remain in Mexico until their appeal to enter the U.S. is decided was a good first step.
“Mexico didn’t want to be a doormat anymore,” she said. That, in turn, had Mexico pressuring Central American neighbors to help out and assist those seeking asylum.
Now all that work is eroding.
“It’s a free-for-all now,” Vaughn said. “Everyone feels sorry for these people, but we should not encourage illegal immigration.”
Eva Millona, executive director of the Massachusetts Immigrant and Refugee Advocacy Coalition, said last week the crisis at the border — especially during the pandemic — can be “mind-boggling.” But, she added, it should not become a political football.
On Monday, U.S. Rep. Tony Gonzales, R-Texas, told reporters that U.S. Border Patrol agents “are doing God’s work keeping our border safe.”
U.S. Rep. Joaquin Castro, D-Texas, the former chairman of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, took to Twitter, where he called concerns by McCarthy and other Republicans for migrant children “hollow and cynical” given their past support for the Trump administration’s immigration policies that hurt migrant families.
The lawmakers’ remarks came two days after Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas announced he had directed the Federal Emergency Management Agency to step in and help border officials safely process and transfer migrant children who cross the border without their parents.
Border agents recorded more than 100,000 border crossings in February, including 9,457 unaccompanied migrant children, according to the most recent data from U.S. Customs and Border Protection.