Joe Biden admitted Friday that the US-Mexico border is not secure — despite his Homeland Security secretary insisting it was — and demanded Congress act to prevent further influxes.
The president was asked by a White House reporter if the border was secure, and responded according The New York Post: ‘No, that’s not it.’
In March 2021, Alejandro Mayorkas told ABC News, “The border is closed. The border is safe.’
The president’s rejection of his secretary of homeland security appeared to be a response to polls showing voters increasingly concerned about his administration’s handling of the border. With the election less than a year away, his approval rating for tackling immigration is at an all-time low.
Biden sought to shift blame Friday, saying he had asked Congress to approve his plan for handling the border but had been thwarted.
Joe Biden is seen at the White House on Friday discussing immigration. He admitted that the US-Mexico border was not secure
Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas insisted in March 2021 that the border was “closed” and “secure”
And he appeared visibly angry as he discussed the widespread view that his government is failing to tackle the crisis.
“I love how I turned on the TV and, ‘Biden is for a free and open border, just tear everything down – everyone comes, no restrictions,’” he said sarcastically.
“I believe we need significant policy changes at the border, including changes to our asylum system to ensure we have the authorities we need to control the border. I’m ready to take action.’
Biden told congressional leaders at a White House meeting this week that he wanted a “major border security bill” as he tries to push Congress to resume work on his $110 billion national security package for Ukraine, Israel and others needs, including the US. -Mexican border.
Mayorkas has been deeply involved in Senate negotiations over the border security package, which would potentially restrict entry into the U.S. and allow people in the country to be deported more quickly without legal documentation.
He said House Speaker Mike Johnson must decide whether to work with him or block him, and accused Republicans of “weaponizing” the border.
‘Now the question for the chairman and the Republicans in the House of Representatives is: are they also prepared to take action?’ Biden said.
“They have to choose whether they want to solve a problem or continue to weaponize the issue to score political points against the president. I’m ready to solve the problem. I’m real.
‘Huge changes, and I mean that sincerely.’
Migrants are pictured Wednesday walking through a barbed wire fence to get from Mexico to the United States, near Ciudad Juarez
A group of migrants cross the Rio Grande near Eagle Pass, Texas, on Thursday as golfers play a round
Lines of migrants are seen walking through the Mexican state of Oaxaca on January 9, heading towards the US-Mexico border
The Biden campaign team was probably bothered by it a January 7 poll by CBS which showed that only 32 percent of Americans approve of Biden’s handling of the border.
The poll also found that 45 percent of Americans view the border situation as a crisis, and another 30 percent see it as a serious problem.
CBS found that the position of Americans at the border has shifted since September: 55 percent thought that Biden should take a tougher stance, but now that figure has risen to 63 percent.
Republicans in the House of Representatives are trying to impeach Mayorkas over the border situation.
Homeland Security Committee Chairman Mark Green is heading toward a vote on Mayorkas’ impeachment by the end of the month, with the full House likely to take action as early as February — which would be a first for a Cabinet official in nearly 150 year. year.
Green, a Republican from Tennessee, opened the second impeachment hearing, saying “no American is safe” under Mayorkas’ handling of the U.S.-Mexico border, with record numbers of illegal crossings.
He argued that the Secretary’s “egregious misconduct and failure to fulfill his oath of office” are grounds for impeachment.
But the panel’s top Democrat, Bennie Thompson of Mississippi, who has repeatedly emphasized that policy differences with Biden are not grounds for impeachment, was supported by one of the witnesses, Princeton University law professor Deborah Pearlstein.
“Policy differences, no matter how profound, are precisely not what impeachment is intended to address,” Pearlstein said.
She argued that no branch of the U.S. government has more power than Congress to set policy, and that, due to years of inaction on border legislation, these powers have “gone unused.”