The Biden administration is starting to take heat from prominent members of its own party as the crisis at the southern border persists.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., told ABC’s “The View” on Thursday that the White House will have to do a better job as illegal immigration surges — though Schumer blamed the Trump administration for the current problems.
“[Biden] inherited a huge mess on immigration, and it’s not going to be cleaned up in a month,” he said. “He’s only been in office since Jan. 20 — about six weeks. His view of immigration is not like Donald Trump’s, who was nasty, negative, and horrible to immigrants.
“One of the problems with the Trump administration is that they had so much incompetence.”
Schumer said Biden officials “are rolling up their sleeves and working” on the immigration problem.
“I think it will get better in the next few months. If it doesn’t, I will go to them and say, ‘You got to do better,'” Schumer said. “And if they don’t, I will be public. But I got to give them a little bit of a chance because they inherited a big, big mess created by Donald Trump, whose views on immigrants just turned me off.”
The number of attempted illegal border crossings rose 28% in February, the first full month of the Biden administration.
Biden has stopped construction of the Trump-backed border wall and moved to strengthen protections for recipients of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program. His administration has also moved to place a 100-day pause on deportations, though a Texas court in late February indefinitely banned enforcement of the moratorium.
Biden’s immigration plan is the most radical that’s been proposed by any U.S. president, Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, said.
“He proposes every single illegal alien in the United States become an American citizen. Why? Because he believes the vast majority of them will vote Democrat. It’s all about politics,” Cruz said Wednesday during an appearance on Newsmax TV.
And Trump has blasted Biden for the “spiraling tsunami” at the southern border.
“The spiraling tsunami at the border is overwhelming local communities, depleting budgets, crowding hospitals, and taking jobs from legal American workers,” he said. “When I left office, we had achieved the most secure border in our country’s history. Under Biden, it will soon be worse, more dangerous, and more out of control than ever before. He has violated his oath of office to uphold our Constitution and enforce our laws.”
Biden announced on Sunday he was dispatching senior members of his administration to the border to assess an “influx of unaccompanied minors”
“President Biden has asked senior members of his team to travel to the border region in order to provide a full briefing to him on the government response to the influx of unaccompanied minors and an assessment of additional steps that can be taken to ensure the safety and care of these children,” White House spokesperson Vedant Patel said.
Source: Newmax
