President Already Has Tools To Start Securing Border
‘Going soft on border security may have started as just a short-sighted campaign strategy. A reckless debate-stage promise to ‘surge’ asylum seekers to the border might have been just a cynical play to court left-wing voters. But after three years on the job, President Biden’s failure to perform one of the most basic functions of his office isn’t endearing. It’s not some impressive sign of left-wing bona fides. It’s a glaring, avoidable failure.’
WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) delivered the following remarks today on the Senate floor regarding President Biden’s southern border crisis:
“Yesterday, the Democratic Leader once again tipped his cap to President Biden for what he describes as ‘many actions’ in ‘recent weeks’ to secure the southern border… Which leaves me with a couple questions:
“First, what took the President so long?
“And second, why isn’t he taking the actions we know would actually begin to address the crisis that he actually invited?
“The reason I ask is because time matters, here. The cost of an average day of avoidable crisis at the border is measured in thousands of apprehensions of illegal arrivals… and the interdiction of lethal drugs like fentanyl.
“And if that’s not alarming enough, consider the story reported earlier this month of the catch-and-release of a military-age male who spent two years free in the interior of the country before he was detained for alleged affiliations with ISIS-K!
“Of course, everything I’ve mentioned so far we only know because CBP was able to stop it. But think about what border officials know they’re not catching – the known gotaways.
“For ten years before President Biden took office – under Administrations of both parties – an average of about 125,000 people per year successfully crossed the southern border and escaped into the interior. Well, on the Biden Administration’s watch, in fiscal years 2021 through 2023, the average tally of known gotaways is about 550,000.
“From 125,000 to more than half a million.
“President Biden’s press secretary says his Administration has ‘done more… than anybody else’ to secure the border.
“But if you wanted to make that claim true, you’d say this President has done more than anyone else to make the tough jobs of CBP and other law enforcement personnel even tougher.
“In fact, one sobering new report suggests that contending for years with a historic humanitarian and security crisis without effective enforcement authorities is taking a heavy toll on the men and women of the Border Patrol.
“The rate of suicide among CBP personnel is three times higher than it was a decade ago. As one agent told reporters ‘when it turned out that the job became nothing more than processing and releasing these people, that was very hard to take.’
“Going soft on border security may have started as just a short-sighted campaign strategy. A reckless debate-stage promise to ‘surge’ asylum seekers to the border might have been just a cynical play to court left-wing voters.
“But after three years on the job, President Biden’s failure to perform one of the most basic functions of his office isn’t endearing. It’s not some impressive sign of left-wing bona fides.
“It’s a glaring, avoidable failure. A profound moral embarrassment. And even Washington Democrats are beginning to recognize it as a tremendous political liability.
“The American people are telling poll after poll that they’re alarmed by the border crisis and want to see real solutions.
“Fortunately, the quickest way for the President to start undoing the damage he invited is to restore and use the authorities he already has at his disposal, like Remain-in-Mexico and border wall construction. And any of our Democratic colleagues who recognize that the President must act ought to start telling him so.
“It’s time for the Biden Administration to start exercising its immense authority to restore sanity and start cleaning up the mess at our southern border. The time for distractions is long past.”
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Related Issues: Border Security
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