Jan. 3 (UPI) — The Biden administration said Wednesday Republicans are not acting to address the border migration issue they’ve been attacking in their public rhetoric. Instead, the White House said, the GOP is blocking border funding.
“Actions speak louder than words,” White House spokesperson Andrew Bates said in a statement ahead of two days of Republican border visits. “House Republicans’ anti-border security record is defined by attempting to cut Customs and Border Protection personnel, opposing President Biden’s record-breaking border security funding, and refusing to take up the President’s supplemental funding request.”
Writing on X, Speaker Johnson said, “60+ House Republicans are heading to Texas this week to see firsthand and highlight the impact of Biden’s border crisis. This situation requires significant policy changes and House Republicans will continue advocating for real solutions that actually secure our border.”
Republicans are making the border a campaign issue while not taking action to address it, according to the White House.
Bates’ statement said Republicans actually have an “anti-border security record” because they have obstructed President Joe Biden’s border security efforts while voting against more border security funding.
But Rep. Glenn Thompson, R-Pa., blames Biden for border problems. He said in a statement, “At every turn the Biden Administration has failed to address the crisis on our southern border. House Republicans have put forth solutions, and this trip will allow us to meet face to face with those brave men and women who serve in Customs and Border Protection, who have been sidelined by failed policies.”
Bates said the anti-border security moves by Republicans include consistently voting against Biden’s border security funding year after year, which Bates said are hamstringing border security “in the name of extreme, partisan demands.”
Rep. Burgess Owens, R-Utah, accused Biden of “dismantling” border security through executive actions even as Republicans block additional border security funding.
“In Joe Biden’s first 100 days, he took 94 executive actions on immigration, including halting border wall construction, ending the successful Remain in Mexico policy, dismantling border security, and more, resulting in the worst border crisis our country has ever seen,” Rep. Owens said in a statement.
During interviews Wednesday on CNN and MSNBC, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said he is working with a bipartisan group of U.S. senators as they try to forge border legislation in what he described as a serious effort to address a long-broken U.S. immigration system.
Mayorkas said his department doesn’t have the resources to adequately address the border situation.
“We need additional personnel to advance our security at the border. We need technology to advance our fight against fentanyl. We need additional asylum officers to really accelerate the asylum adjudication process,” Mayorkas said.
