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A Senate Republican threatened to hold up the confirmation process for President Joe Biden’s picks to lead federal agencies if the commander in chief does not visit the U.S.-Mexico border in the coming days.
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) issued the warning alongside Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH), and National Border Patrol Council President Brandon Judd at a press conference on Capitol Hill Wednesday afternoon. The briefing was intended to light a fire under Biden nearly a year and a half into the border crisis, which has worsened in the last several months to an extent never before seen.
“You need to go to the border and hear from the agents in the communities in Texas and Arizona, the hell it’s like to live along the southern border,” Graham said. “President Biden, if you do not go to our border to visit firsthand and see what’s going on and to hear from the Border Patrol agents themselves, you’re letting down your country, you’re derelict in your duty, and there will be repercussions for — for that lack of interest — here in the Senate.”
Graham continued: “I’ve worked across the aisle. I’ll continue to do so when it makes sense, but I’m going to change my attitude until he goes to that border. Processing nominations is going to be different for me until President Biden goes to this border and sees firsthand the problems he is creating.”
BORDER PATROL CHIEFS UNDER THREE PRESIDENTS WARN BIDEN ON ‘WHIPPING’ DISCIPLINE
The number of migrants encountered attempting to enter the United States illegally from Mexico rose in May, surpassing all previous records over the past century, an indication of the scale of the illegal immigration crisis at the border.
U.S. border officials intercepted 239,416 migrants attempting to enter the country illegally last month, the fourth consecutive monthly rise. In the first 16 full months of Biden’s term in office, federal law enforcement officials at the southern border have stopped noncitizens attempting to cross into the U.S. without permission 2.975 million times, including migrants denied admission at ports of entry.
Monthly encounters, which do not include people who evade arrest and ultimately get away, are six times higher than monthly averages under President Barack Obama and President Donald Trump, Judd said.
“When you look at the number of gotaways — 1 million since this president has been in office,” Judd said, referring to the number of illegal immigrants that agents have observed crossing and have been unable to apprehend. “He’s released another little over a million people.”
Judd maintained that because more than half of illegal immigrants who are apprehended at the southern border were released into the U.S. last month under an informal protocol known as “catch and release,” more people are choosing to attempt illegal entry.
“I am amazed that Border Patrol agents show up for work,” Cruz said.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
Graham and Jordan vowed to put forth legislative solutions to the border crisis if Republicans take back congressional majorities in November’s midterm elections.
“I promise you, if Republicans are in charge of the House and the Senate, there will be fixes to this problem on the floor of both houses within a matter of days, if not weeks, OK, and they will work,” Graham said.
