During a speech at the White House on Thursday, President Joe Biden laid the blame for the invasion at the southern border on Republicans — ignoring his obvious support for Democrats’ open-border policies.
In his speech, the president tried to claim that partisan divisiveness was also the cause of the border crisis — arguing that the divide has prevented solutions to illegal immigration.
Of course, Biden conveniently ignores the fact that the Democrats have had control of the executive and legislative branches of government for the last two years and done nothing to stop this problem from happening. Under the Democrats’ leadership, at least 2.2 million illegal immigrants crossed the southern border in the fiscal year 2022 — which is a 33% increase from 2021.
Nonetheless, Biden still claims that he tried to take action to fix the problem that critics say he created.
“I sent congress a comprehensive piece of legislation that would completely overhaul what has been a broken immigration system for a long time,” he said.
Biden then claimed that preventing illegal immigration is one of his priorities, but it has been opposed by Republicans.
“Cracking down on illegal immigration, strengthening legal immigration, and protecting dreamers, those with temporary protective status, like farm workers, are part of the fabric of our nation,” the president asserted. “But congressional republicans have refused to consider my plan and they rejected my retest for an additional $3.5 billion to secure the border and funds for 2,000 new asylum personnel.”
Joe Biden claims 20,000 lbs of fentanyl is "enough to kill as many as 1,000 people in this country."
20,000 lbs of fentanyl would kill 4.5 billion people. pic.twitter.com/HAYvTfR1XX
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) January 5, 2023
After he finished blaming the Republicans, Biden went on to say that politics have gotten so “divisive” that it has prevented solutions for the border invasion. Once again, the president forgets that he has been accused of being the source of a significant amount of division within the country, especially as he has been constantly demonizing his opposition as “extremists” who are “a threat” to the nation.
Still, Biden claimed in his White House speech that divisiveness was a problem, then quickly pivoted to saying that “extreme Republicans” have to choose between either helping solve the illegal immigration problem or using the issue “to score political points.”
“Our politics have been so divisive. I know it’s getting much better, but it’s been so darned divisive it clouds the picture,” he said. “Republicans haven’t been serious about it at all. Come on. They haven’t been serious at all.”
“It is clear that immigration is a political issue and extreme republicans will always run on, but now they have a choice,” Biden added. “They can keep using immigration to score political points or they can help solve the problem. They can help solve the problem and come together to fix the broken system.”
However, Biden clearly isn’t serious about dealing with the border crisis.
In a tweet, the Heritage Foundation shared a different clip from Biden’s speech, revealing that he announced new measures to deport illegal aliens without “a legal right to stay.” The foundation then pointed out that Biden had just said that any illegal alien who claims asylum has a right to stay.
“In other words, he’s telling potential border crossers that claiming asylum is their golden ticket,” the Heritage Foundation concluded.
Well that's clever. Biden says he's announcing new measures to deport those without "a legal right to stay." But he's just said that anyone who claims asylum has a right to stay.
In other words, he's telling potential border crossers that claiming asylum is their golden ticket. pic.twitter.com/Mq22cpUK7s
— Heritage Foundation (@Heritage) January 5, 2023
Biden also announced on Wednesday that he plans to visit the southern border for the first time in his entire political career, which spans nearly 50 years. The president will be traveling to Mexico on Sunday to speak with Mexican authorities about climate change and illegal immigration, among other issues, and will then reportedly take a trip to a location on the border that has not yet been announced.
