President Joe Biden’s calls during his State of the Union address for immigration reform and a better federal response to fentanyl smuggling at the border were met with fury by Republicans.
As the border crisis headed into its third year, Biden took the podium inside the Capitol in Washington on Tuesday evening and pressured Democrats and Republicans to unite and overhaul U.S. immigration policy,
“America’s border problems won’t be fixed until Congress acts,” said Biden.
But his message infuriated Republicans who immediately yelled out for Biden to “secure the border” and only went quiet after House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) hushed the rambunctious rank-and-file members from his seat behind the president.
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Biden shared a story of a 20-year-old woman who died from fentanyl and called for a “major surge” to stop the production, sale, and trafficking of the drug into and around the country.
Republicans erupted again with calls to “secure the border.”
“You got it,” Biden said as he looked to the right side of the chamber where Republicans were seated.
Biden touted the high number of personnel that his administration had sent to the southern border, but he did not specify how many were deployed and for how long or at what financial cost to U.S. taxpayers.
“We now have a record number of personnel working to secure the border, arresting 8,000 human smugglers and seizing over 23,000 pounds of fentanyl in just the last several months,” Biden said.
Despite quickly mentioning the border, Biden did not describe it as a “crisis,” nor did he state that 5 million noncitizens were intercepted at the nation’s borders since he took office two years ago — more than in former President Barack Obama’s eight years in office.
Instead, Biden left the burgeoning humanitarian and national security crisis at the feet of a Congress that has been unwilling to act for decades. Biden has shown no indication of plans to reinstate a slew of border policies that his predecessor, former President Donald Trump, had implemented in his tenure.
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Biden said if both parties could not agree on a major bill, they should pass the plan he endorsed at the start of his presidency.
The plan would increase funding for federal law enforcement at the border and give illegal immigrants who were brought to the United States as children, farm workers, and essential workers the chance to become citizens.
