President Joe Biden knows there is an immigration crisis at the nation’s border but “thinks by staying away from it, by hiding out, that the problem will go away,” House Minority Whip Steve Scalise, R-La., said Tuesday.
“It’s getting worse because of President Biden’s policies,” Scalise said on Fox Business’ “Mornings With Maria.” “What President [Donald] Trump was doing was working. Biden may not like President Trump, but if his policy was working, at least continue on with that.”
Biden can still reverse his own policies by executive order, and stop the humanitarian crisis that is happening with children arriving unaccompanied at the nation’s border.
“They’re overwhelming communities along the border, and it seems like he doesn’t care about their plight because he’s carrying out socialist agenda that the left wants,” Scalise said. “This isn’t some social experiment. This is having a devastating impact on these young children coming across without parents in many cases, left to just be fending for themselves after being exploited in many cases along the journey, the 20-plus-day journey for some of them.”
Even though the Biden administration continues to refuse to call the border situation a crisis, Scalise said that’s exactly what it is due to the president.
“He went on day one, stopped building the wall, ordered that they stop construction on the wall that was going on and it actually costs more money to stop executing those contracts,” Scalise said. “That wall that President Trump had put in place had been successful at securing our border.
“What President Biden did is put the open sign at America’s border and they’re coming in by the thousands every day.”
Scalise noted that Jeh Johnson, who was Department of Homeland Security secretary under former President Barack Obama, said if he saw more than 1,000 crossings in one day illegally, it was a “serious problem.” Now, between 3,000 and 4,000 immigrants are coming daily.
“This is a major humanitarian crisis,” Scalise said. “The young kids that are pulled across the border, many are brought across by cartels, by these coyotes who are paid money, many sexually exploiting the young women coming across.”
After the young immigrants arrive, they’re not being kept in proper places, as the system is “completely overwhelmed” – something Scalise said was Biden’s fault.
The president, however, refuses to visit the border, and instead is touring the nation to tout the $1.9 trillion COVID bill, Scalise said.
The administration also is reportedly making plans for the first major federal tax hike since 1993 to pay for the long-term economic program following the pandemic bill, and Scalise said the United States “needs to be rescued” from the “socialist agenda that’s being rammed through Congress.”
“Look at the [COVID] bill,” Scalise said. “Over 90% of this $1.9 trillion bill has nothing to do with health needs. We tried to put money in to double the number of vaccines and they rejected it. In this bill, they have $1,400 checks going to felons in federal prison. Does anybody really think that’s a COVID-related item?
“They banned states from cutting taxes in the bill, The money is being borrowed from our children and they’ll raise taxes on hard-working families to pay for this.”
