President Joe Biden wouldn’t apologize during his first press conference in office about ending his predecessor’s programs on immigration, but he should say he’s sorry to border officers who are being “overtaxed by the sheer numbers” of migrants coming into the United States, particularly with the children who must be held until space opens in Health and Human Services facilities, Rep. Michael Burgess said Friday.
“Biden knew this was a problem,” the Texas Republican said on Fox Business’ “Mornings With Maria.” “It was a problem in 2014 when he was vice president. That’s when it crossed a lot of our consciousness when we had a surge of migrants coming across. We went down to see for ourselves what was going on there.”
The current situation is the “same crisis, except it’s magnified because the coyotes and traffickers on the downstream side have monetized” how they are bringing migrants to the border, Burgess added.
“If Biden sends a message, ‘y’all come,’ they’re more than willing to collect money from people and help them get up here,” he said.
Meanwhile, he slammed the president’s first press conference after taking office as a “triumph of low expectations.”
“Look, the press conference was put off for so long, there was so much speculation about the president’s ability to even conduct a press conference, the fact that he got through it with no major problems is in and of itself a victory for the Biden administration,” said Burgess. “But as far as the border’s concerned, it is not a victory, not a victory for the American people.”
He did say he agrees with Biden on one thing, that there is a seasonal variation on immigration.
“If it is this bad in February and March, it is going to be absolutely awful by the time we get to May and June,” said Burgess. “We’ve seen it before. And again, the folks at Customs and Border Protection will get absolutely overwhelmed with unaccompanied migrant children, who come in that have got no place to go.”
Biden also on Thursday said he supports ending the Senate filibuster, and Burgess pointed out that while the president was a senator during then-President George W. Bush’s administration, the filibuster was used to keep Bush’s judges and policies from moving forward.
“I shed no tears for the Joe Biden who is worried about the filibuster now,” said Burgess.
The filibuster is a tactic in the U.S. Senate that in the past had allowed debate to stall legislation by keeping the chamber from voting on it, but has since shifted to allow Senators to invoke a filibuster without having to speak at length.
Biden has said that he would favor a return to the “talking” filibuster, and on Thursday he said he wants to “get things done.”
“In addition to having an open mind about dealing with certain things that are just elemental to the functioning of our democracy, like the right to vote, like the basic right to vote, we have amended the filibuster in the past,” Biden said. “But here’s the deal, as you observe I’m a fairly practical guy, I want to get things done. I want to get them done consistent with what we promised the American people.”
Source: Newmax
