During a speech on border security on Thursday, Democrat President Joe Biden blamed and attacked “extreme Republicans” for the illegal immigration crisis at the southern border.
“Our problems at the border didn’t arise overnight and they’re not going to be solved overnight. It’s a difficult problem,” Biden said, even though the border crisis began shortly after he entered office two years ago.
“It’s clear that immigration is a political issue that extreme Republicans are always going to run on,” Biden continued. “But now they have a choice: They can keep using immigration to try to score political points or they can help solve the problem. They can help solve the problem and come together to fix the broken system.”
Biden argued that “extreme Republicans” were to blame for the border crisis because they blocked his border agenda in Congress. Biden had wanted to increase spending on for immigration judges and asylum agents so migrants could move through the asylum process more quickly.
“Look, we need me- — we need more resources to secure the border. Yet again, extreme Republicans have said no. Many Republicans agree we should do something. But it’s time to stop listening to their inflammatory talk, and it’s time to look at their record,” Biden said. “As I’ve always done when I sit down — I’ll sit down with anyone who, in good faith, wants to fix our broken immigration system. And it’s hard. It’s hard on the best of circumstances. But if the most extreme Republicans continue to demagogue this issue and reject solutions, I’m left with only one choice: to act on my own, do as much as I can on my own to try to change the atmosphere.”
Notably, Biden encouraged migrants to come to the United States throughout his 2020 presidential campaign. He went as far as assuring migrants that the United States would be their “safe haven” during his DNC presidential nominee acceptance speech.
After entering office in January 2021, Biden followed through on his campaign promise and worked to dismantle border security policies implemented by the Trump administration. Illegal immigration then surged to record high levels with border officials encountering 1,734,686 migrants attempting to illegally cross the southern border in fiscal year 2021. The following year shattered fiscal year 2021’s record as border officials encountered 2,378,944 migrants in fiscal year 2022.