The White House heavily criticized Gov. Greg Abbot of Texas and Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida after the two Republican governors transported illegal immigrants to Martha’s Vineyard, an island in Massachusetts, and to the streets outside of the Washington residence of Vice President Kamala Harris.
Abbott confirmed on Thursday that he bussed illegal immigrants from the Texas-Mexico border to an area near Harris’ home in the District of Columbia. Meanwhile, DeSantis took credit for flying dozens of illegal aliens from Florida to Martha’s Vineyard. The Massachusetts island often draws the wealthy and powerful, including former President Barack Obama and his family, who own an estate there.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre responded to a question about the governors’ recent actions, saying that Illegal immigrants deserve better “than being left on the streets of D.C. or the streets of Martha’s Vineyard.” she then alleged the governors are “using migrants as political pawns” and described the incident as “reckless” and “shameful.”
Abbott has been sending dozens of buses of illegal immigrants who voluntarily sign up for the trip, he claims, to cities such as New York, Washington and Chicago. Despite each of these city’s statuses as sanctuary cities, Democrat officials have decried the tactic and have even issued emergency declarations, drawing the ire of Republicans who have pointed out the hypocrisy of the sanctuary city leaders.
But Abbott, DeSantis and other Republicans assert that the Biden administration’s policies on illegal immigration are deeply flawed, noting that after the White House repealed Trump-era immigration rules, the number of illegal immigrants crossing the border shot up.
In the first 18 months of Biden’s presidency, approximately 4.9 million illegal immigrants have crossed the border, according to a recent report issued by the Federation for American Immigration Reform, or FAIR. The group claims that this number is “the equivalent of the entire population of Ireland.”
“The Biden administration has blamed an unprecedented surge of illegal immigration on all sorts of external factors, except their own sabotage of our nation’s immigration laws. The endless flow of illegal aliens and the incursion of lethal narcotics pouring across our border will not end until this administration demonstrates a willingness to enforce our laws,” said Dan Stein, president of FAIR.
Nevertheless, Harris stuck to her guns and blamed the last guy yet again, telling NBC host Chuck Todd over the past weekend, “The border is secure, but we also have a broken immigration system, in particular over the last four years before we came in, and it needs to be fixed.”
Of course, she didn’t explain how Trump broke the system, but just gave the old rallying cry of “Orange Man Bad” in hopes that struggling Democrats can survive the midterms.
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