Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.) appeared on Fox Business Network’s “Cavuto: Coast to Coast” on Wednesday to discuss Biden administration officials’ trip to Mexico to speak with Mexican officials about immigration and the shared border, calling it “lip service.”
Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas and White House homeland security adviser Elizabeth Sherwood-Randall traveled Wednesday to Mexico to discuss historic levels of migration as pressure builds on the Biden administration to act.
“As you said earlier, Blinken’s visit to Mexico is all about paying lip service to this issue,” Mace told Fox’s Edward Lawrence.
The officials will meet with Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador and his team, and they will discuss the “unprecedented irregular migration” and find ways the countries can reopen key points of entry.
Mace said it is not the United States’s responsibility to send aid to the home countries of migrants to address the root causes of migration to America.
“I represent a very independent-minded district. We are seeing independents, Republicans and Democrats getting very angry about what they’re seeing at the border,” Mace said. “On some days, we have more people crossing the southern border in one day than we do all year from our northern border.”
The South Carolina lawmaker said it is a “massive problem” for the Biden administration, but “they refuse to address it.”
The meeting between officials will serve as a follow-up to President Biden’s phone call with López Obrador last week, when the two leaders agreed additional enforcement action was urgently needed.
It also comes as a caravan of 6,000 migrants is reportedly making its way toward the U.S.
At least three points of entry in Texas, Arizona and California have closed to foot and vehicle traffic, and two railway crossings have closed. The meeting hopes to explore reopening some of them.
The surge of migrants has created political tension as Republicans demand reforms to border policy to unlock aid for Ukraine. Biden said he is willing to make “significant compromises” to make it happen.