“Democrats Cannot Get Control of the Crisis they Stoked”
‘Our nation’s southern border is still in crisis. The Biden Administration still won’t admit it. Much of the media would prefer not to cover it. But the facts are clear. And they’re unacceptable.’
WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) delivered the following remarks today on the Senate floor regarding the border crisis:
“Our nation’s southern border is still in crisis.
“The Biden Administration still won’t admit it. Much of the media would prefer not to cover it. But the facts are clear. And they’re unacceptable.
“A few days ago, Customs and Border Protection issued their report on the month of April. The number of encounters with illegal entrants was 3% higher in April than it was in March. The crisis is still growing.
“Encounters with single adults on the border were 613% higher last month versus April of last year, when the Trump Administration put emergency measures in place. Encounters with unaccompanied children were up 2,217% year-over-year.
“Let me say that again: Two thousand, two hundred, and seventeen percent more kids without parents at our border on President Biden’s watch.
“The Administration has tried to boast that the number of unaccompanied kids in the custody of the Department of Homeland Security has gone down.
“That’s true, it has — because they have transferred large numbers of kids from DHS to HHS. There are now more than 19,000 children in the custody of Health and Human Services. And hundreds more arriving every day.
“We know why all this is happening.
“When Washington Democrats spent years reciting the mantra “Abolish ICE,” people listened.
“When our new President spent his campaign signaling he’d support a weaker border, when he expressed that he supports providing government healthcare to people here illegally, people took note.
“Now Democrats cannot get control of the crisis they stoked.
“The Vice President, supposedly the point person to fix illegal immigration, has yet to even visit the southern border.
“Apparently Secretary Becerra’s operation at HHS has, in some instances, left migrant children stranded on buses for multiple days.
“Exactly the kind of unacceptable mismanagement that Senate Republicans feared we might see under an HHS Secretary without relevant healthcare or management experience.
“Last week, HHS announced it would be taking money that was meant to replenish the Strategic National Stockpile, money to fight this pandemic and future pandemics, to help with the migrant crisis.
“Well, today, the Senate will consider another amendment from the senior Senator for Wisconsin.
“It would stop the Biden Administration from canceling contracts that are already in place to build wall on our southern border.
“Perhaps our Democratic colleagues will help us begin to address the border crisis this Democratic Administration has caused.”
Related Issues: Immigration, Health Care
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