Biden crackdown on border labeled both 'repressive' & 'too late'
Biden signs executive order on border security
President Joe Biden announced strict, new immigration measures saying "Doing nothing, is not an option." The executive order calls for turning away nearly all immigrants who cross the border "illegally" and denying asylum to those who enter the country without authorization. FOX 26 Political Reporter Greg Groogan has more with what the president has to say.
HOUSTON - Three and half years deep into his Presidency and Joe Biden is issuing "get tough" executive orders aimed at better securing the Southern border.
With as many 10 million migrants having already crossed during his term, the President says he is choosing to act "now" because Congress and specifically Republicans will not.
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"I am announcing actions to bar migrants who cross our Southern Border unlawfully from receiving asylum. We must face the simple truth - to protect America as a land that welcomes immigrants, we must first secure the border and secure it now," said Biden.
Too little and far too late say Texas Republicans led by Senator Ted Cruz, who believe Biden's measures are a political reflex to polling, which indicates widespread anger among many voters over the President's consistent refusal to secure ther border.
"It is a full-on invasion and the border of magnitude we have never had anything close. So, between now and Election Day, do I think the Biden administration is going to try and play some politics and try to decrease the numbers at the border a little bit so they can say the problem is solved? But I think their view is that American voters are gullible. I don't think that's right. I don't think people are stupid," said Cruz.
Democratic Congressman Colin Allred, who is seeking to unseat the Senator, says the refusal by Cruz and other Republicans to support a bipartisan compromise, amounts to perpetuating the crisis for political gain.
"The specific issue we had at the border, which was basically an asylum crisis with billions of dollars of resources for Texas for CBP personnel, for more immigration judges, that Ted Cruz said no to. I think he said no, not because he disagreed with the policy, but because he wanted to have the issue to run on in November," said Allred.
Advocates for immigrant rights labeled the President's election year executive order a "betrayl."
"The policy released this morning is one of the most restrictive and repressive policies we have seen in decades," said Cesar Espinosa, Executive Director of the immigrant advocacy group, FIEL.