Republican governors recently unveiled a 10-point plan designed to end the crisis at the southern border while continuing to call on President Joe Biden and his administration to act promptly to solve the growing surge of migrants streaming across the southern border.
The governors want the administration to reverse policies they say encourage the record numbers of migrants now entering the United States by crossing the border with Mexico.
The Biden administration has been facing a massive surge across the border this year. More than 200,000 migrants hit the border in both July and August.
September brought another crisis as the border was swarmed and more than 15,000 Haitian refugees gathered under the International Bridge in Del Rio, Texas.
Projections show that the number of migrants crossing the southern border into the U.S. will top 2 million by the end of the year, eclipsing records.
“The president must act. He cannot ignore this humanitarian and national security crisis anymore,” said Nebraska Gov. Pete Ricketts.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, speaking alongside eight other governors in Mission, Texas, added: “President Joe Biden has caused a humanitarian crisis and chaos on our border.
“All Americans saw what happened in Del Rio, Texas just last month, and we know that chaos will be repeated unless and until President Biden takes action,” he said.
Abbott also targeted DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas stating, “Secretary Mayorkas is a disaster in what he’s done, and no-one should put any trust or confidence in what he says.”
Earlier, a press conference was held where Republican senators laid blame on the Biden administration for border chaos.
“This is a humanitarian crisis, this is a public health crisis, this is a national security crisis, and Joe Biden and [Vice President] Kamala Harris won’t do a damn thing about it,” said Republican Senator Ted Cruz, R-Texas.
Senators Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, and Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa both emphasize that crisis has a domino effect in other states, not just border states, due to the impact of drugs and crime as they travel around the country.
Sen. Ernst addressed the Biden administration, saying, “Please wake up. You have to address this situation. Republicans have solutions we have outlined; it’s your time to act.”
Biden administration: Not our fault
The Biden administration continues to blame root causes, including the rollback of the Trump administration’s ending of legal asylum pathways and corruption, poverty, and violence in Central America for the migrant crisis.
Republicans disagree, blaming the Biden administration’s rollback of Trump’s border policies. “It’s not a secret anymore. They have created this crisis, and Americans know it,” said Arizona Governor Doug Ducey.
The group of governors unveiled a 10-point plan to reverse the crisis. They reiterated that the president could rectify the situation with the stroke of a pen.
The plan includes the complete restoration of Trump’s Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP), which required migrants to stay in Mexico while they waited for immigration hearings.
After Biden canceled MPP, many legal experts criticized the move while claiming the cancellation was not legal. Recently, the administration was ordered to restart the policy by a federal court.
Individually, the governors called for the restart of border wall construction, which is still costing U.S. taxpayers $5 million per day; the end of “catch-and-release”; deployment of more federal law enforcement to the border; an expansion of Title 42 expulsions; and for the administration to provide more resources to keep the border secure.
