Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) argued that President Joe Biden‘s visit to the southern border is a “middle finger to middle America.”
The president’s visit to the southern border is scheduled for Thursday in Brownsville, Texas, which is located in the Rio Grande Valley. The Missouri senator argued that Biden’s visit is being made in “contempt” for residents of the United States, adding that he “doesn’t care” about border security.
“For Joe Biden to go stand in a parking lot three years after he opened the border and say, ‘Oh, see, look! It’s working! My policies are working!’ This is an outrage. It is the middle finger to middle America, and it’s time he was held accountable for it,” Hawley said on Fox News’s The Faulkner Focus.
Hawley also suggested that Biden reimplement the Remain in Mexico program, a Trump-era policy that required migrants to wait for their asylum hearings in Mexico instead of the U.S. It was suspended by the Biden administration in August 2022.
Hawley said Remain in Mexico should be reimplemented because the U.S. should not play “catch and release” with immigrants who enter the U.S.
The Missouri senator also suggested that Biden visit people who have had family members die from his border policies, referencing the recent death of Laken Riley, who is suspected to have been killed by illegal immigrant Jose Ibarra. Hawley added that Biden’s policies have “resulted in the death of these good Americans.”
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Former President Donald Trump is also planning to visit the southern border on the same day, with the former president visiting Eagle Pass, Texas. Trump has made illegal immigration and border security a major focus of his campaign and has visited the border several times since leaving the White House.
In response to Biden’s Texas trip, Trump campaign press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Biden “has had three years to visit the border and fix the crisis he created.” The statement added that Biden was visiting the border on the same day as Trump as a “last-minute, insincere attempt” to chase the former president to the border.
