President Biden on Tuesday blamed former President Trump and Republicans for leaving him with no choice but to act on curbing the influx of migrants at the U.S.-southern border.
The president, in remarks from the White House, said he is “moving past Republican obstruction” to act on his own and announce the order, which will be in effect when the seven-day average of daily border crossings exceeds 2,500 between ports of entry.
“Frankly, I would have preferred to address this issue through bipartisan legislation, because that’s the only way to actually get the kind of system we have now that’s broken, fixed. To hire more Border Patrol agents, more asylum officers, more judges. But, Republicans left me no choice,” Biden said.
He called the bipartisan border bill negotiated in the Senate, which Republicans blocked twice, “the strongest border security agreement in decades” and blamed Trump for its failure.
“Republicans in Congress, not all, walked away from it. Why? Because Donald Trump told them to,” the president said. “He told the Republicans… that he didn’t want to fix the issue; he wanted to use it to attack me. That’s what he wanted to do. It was a cynical, extremely cynical political move. And a complete disservice to the American people who are looking for us, not to weaponize the border but to fix it.”
Trump urged the GOP to block the deal so the border would remain a major issue for Election Day. Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) killed the border deal in February, calling it “dead on arrival,” and, Trump in January told supporters that he’s fine being blamed for tanking the bill.
Biden on Tuesday also took jabs at Trump for his deportation proposal to remove immigrants who illegally entered the U.S. The former president has cited the Eisenhower administration’s deportation efforts through a program known as “Operation Wetback” that used military tactics to round up migrants.
“I will never separate children from their families at the border, I will not ban people from this country because of their religious benefits, I will not use the US military to go into neighborhoods all across the country and pull millions of people out of their homes, away from their families and put them into detention camps…as my predecessor says he will do,” Biden said.
The president has faced pushback from both sides over his order, including Republicans who think it’s weak. On the left, House liberals have blasted the order and said they’re disappointed in Biden’s decision.
Biden, in his remarks, asks critics to be patient with the new policy.
“For those who say the steps I’ve taken are too strict, I say to you, be patient,” he said. “Doing nothing is not an option. We have to act.”
Additionally, the president called on Congress to provide funding for more border security agents, immigration judges, and asylum officers and purchase more high-tech detection machines at the border.