The Biden administration’s attempt to shift blame onto Republicans for the ongoing illegal immigration crisis at the southern border has sparked contention and heightened scrutiny. The White House, in a recent statement, launched an offensive against House Republicans ahead of Speaker Mike Johnson’s scheduled border visit, lambasting the GOP for their response to the crisis. White House spokesperson Andrew Bates, in a statement obtained by POLITICO, pointed fingers at House Republicans, highlighting their purported anti-border security track record and their alleged attempts to slash Customs and Border Protection personnel while opposing significant border security funding by President Biden.
Bates underscored what he termed as House Republicans’ prior efforts, claiming they aimed to reduce Border Patrol agents and curtail the nation’s capability to combat fentanyl smuggling. He emphasized their departure from Washington in mid-December despite ongoing bipartisan negotiations in the Senate, alleging the Republicans’ lack of commitment to resolving the border challenges alongside Biden’s administration.
The credibility of President Biden’s immigration policy decisions came under fire, particularly highlighted by a Pew Research Center poll indicating waning confidence in his ability to make prudent decisions about immigration policy among only 32 percent of American adults. Speaker Johnson vehemently criticized Biden’s perceived negligence, asserting that the President has failed in his duty to secure the southern border.
Johnson castigated Biden’s strategy, accusing the administration of allocating more funds not to deter illegal immigration but to facilitate the processing of additional illegal immigrants through their ‘catch and release’ policy. The Speaker condemned the administration’s policy reversals, notably rescinding the Remain in Mexico policy and accused them of abusing the asylum and parole systems, directly linking these actions to the record-high encounters of 300,000 illegal immigrants at the southern border in the previous month.
In a social media post, Johnson contended that the Biden administration orchestrated the diversion of the influx of illegal immigrants to obscure their presence from the public eye during the House GOP’s visit to Eagle Pass, warning against misinterpretation and emphasizing that these individuals are still being released into the country. He unequivocally portrayed the southern border situation under President Biden as nothing short of a disaster, underscoring the administration’s handling of the immigration crisis.
