A Democratic congressman from a border district in Texas repeatedly has criticized the Biden administration’s immigration policy, and now both Democratic senators from Arizona are calling it a failure.
Sens. Kyrsten Sinema and Mark Kelly are supporting Republican Gov. Doug Ducey’s deployment of 500 National Guard soldiers to the U.S.-Mexico border, the Washington Examiner reported.
The existing federal law enforcement on the border is not enough to handle the surge of people illegally crossing in the Tucson and Yuma regions of the state, Sinema told reporters.
“It’s clear that not enough is being done,” Sinema said Thursday. “Arizona is bearing the brunt of this crisis because of the federal government’s failure to address immigration issues over the last three decades.”
She said she has been to the border and spoken with sheriffs, mayors and the two sector chiefs and their leadership teams.
“We’ve got a problem,” she said.
“Washington has to do better, and Arizonans are fed up. So, I’m just going to call it like I see it.”
Last week, as WND reported, Democratic Rep. Henry Cuellar of Texas charged the Biden administration engaged in a “shell game” with the public and media to hide its inability to handle the surge of unaccompanied migrant children.
The administration, in a media presentation called “DHS Action on the Southwest Border Yields Results,” boasted of progress in addressing the surge.
But Cuellar told NBC News anchor Lester Holt the administration is trying to deceive the American public by showing empty facilities.
“All they’re doing is moving kids from one tent to the other tent and saying, ‘Oh, they’re out of Border Patrol custody but they’re next door, next door in HHS,'” Cuellar said.
‘It’s not under control’: Dem lawmaker rebuts Biden
Biden officials told reporters last Thursday hat Congress should take action on immigration issues.
But Sinema, the Examiner reported, already has proposed a bipartisan bill with Republicans that calls on the Biden administration to set up regional processing facilities along the 2,000-mile border.
Such facilities, lawmakers argue, would be better suited to handle asylum-seeking families than Border Patrol stations.
Sinema said in an interview Thursday with KTAR radio in Phoenix “she’s waiting for the administration to take bold action to actually address these concerns.”
Biden insisted in a recent NBC interview that his administration had “gotten control” of the border.
But Cuellar said that’s not true.
“To say that we have everything under control, you know. I’m supportive of President Biden. I’m a supporter of his, but we’re not paying attention to the border’s communities,” he told Fox News. ” … And it’s not under control. I can tell you that.”
In March, the highest number of attempted illegal border crossings in 15 years was recorded, 172,000.
More than 18,000 were unaccompanied children, the highest number ever documented in U.S. history.
