President Joe Biden’s upcoming executive order on the border is a political ploy to get more votes in the 2024 presidential election, Republican senators said at a press conference Tuesday morning.
Biden is expected to announce executive actions on Tuesday to address the southern border crisis, though his previous orders have promoted open borders and allowed more than 8 million illegal migrants to enter the country.
Biden had his entire presidency to secure the border, yet he waited to act until right before the election, Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, said.
“When he signs this executive order,” Cruz said, “the only question anyone should ask is, ‘Why didn’t you do this in 2021? Why didn’t you do this in 2022? Why didn’t you do this in 2023? Why don’t you do this last month or the month before or the month before? How many dead bodies is enough?’”
Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, who hosted the press conference with Cruz, said he thinks Biden has no intention of enforcing the order issued just five months before the presidential election.
“He’s issued 94 executive orders since he’s been president of the United States,” he said. “But he’s waited until today to actually do what he calls effective action to the border. And my question to him is why did you wait until now, if you’re serious about doing it? The simple answer is he’s not serious about securing the border.”
“This is a political cover, and the American people will not be fooled,” Cornyn continued.
Throughout his presidency, Biden has demonstrated an unwillingness to enforce the law, Cornyn said.
“The numbers of people coming across have just been unprecedented, along with the drugs that have come across that have taken the lives of 108,000 Americans, including 71,000 due to fentanyl, the leading cause of death among 18- to 45-year-olds,” Cornyn said. “And then there’s the 400,000 unaccompanied children that have been placed with sponsors in the United States and simply lost by the Biden administration.”
Cornyn added that former President Donald Trump told him in a phone call Tuesday morning that if elected, he will secure the border and deport hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants.
“The only policy change that will work is to have mass deportations because people will stop coming when they see people leaving,” he said.
Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., said the executive order displays Biden’s border hypocrisy.
“For three years, President Biden told us all there is no crisis at the southern border for reasons clearly stated on the teleprompter and his plan to deal with the crisis at the border was to pretend that there wasn’t a crisis at the border,” Kennedy said.
When the American people woke up to the crisis, Biden tried to say he didn’t have the power to fix it, but the American people saw through him, and he pretended to have an epiphany and become a border hawk, Kennedy said.
“This is most one of the most cynical things that I have ever seen a politician attempt to do five months before an election,” Kennedy added. “It is insulting. It is cheap. It is contemptuous. The American people see that, and I hope I hope you do, too.”
Biden isn’t addressing the crisis, he’s maintaining a catastrophe, Sen. Pete Ricketts, R-Neb., argued. Biden discarded Trump-era border policies, which brought immigration to a 40-year low.
“He’s trying to show the American people that he’s taking steps, but we’re not going to believe it,” Ricketts said. “If he were serious, he would implement the Trump-era policies that so successfully brought the numbers of illegal people crossing our border down. He is not serious.”
From the first day of Biden’s presidency, it has been clear we have an open border, Sen. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., argued.
Cruz said the invasion of the southern border is the No. 1 issue in his home state of Texas. Biden inherited the lowest rate of illegal immigration in 45 years when he came into office, but he chose to break the system, the Texas Republican added.
“We have not had a week go by when someone is not shot, someone is not murdered, a child is not raped by an illegal immigrant released by Joe Biden and the Democrats,” Cruz said.
Ricketts said he was proud to join his Republican colleagues in calling the president to secure the southern border and protect the American people.
“He is endangering our country,” Ricketts warned, “and the American people will not buy this political ploy.”
