The White House is attempting to flip the script on border security politics, accusing House Republicans of “creating political stunts” and weakening border security ahead of a House Oversight Committee hearing on the Biden administration’s handling of the US southern border on Tuesday.
In a memo obtained by AWN, White House counsel’s office spokesman Ian Sams credited the administration’s new immigration and border security actions with reducing southern border crossings last month. He also chastised House Republicans for voting against the omnibus spending bill last year, which included billions of dollars in border security funding, accusing them of “pushing an agenda that would make border security worse.”
“It is evident that House Republicans are more interested in performing political stunts than in working with President Biden and Democrats in Congress on legislation to bolster border security and repair our immigration system, which has needed repair for decades,” Sams wrote in the memo. “But, beyond their inability to collaborate constructively to find tangible solutions, they and their state partners are actually pursuing an agenda that would exacerbate the situation at the border.”
The memo will be delivered to Democrats on Capitol Hill and other allies on Tuesday morning, just hours before the House Oversight and Accountability Committee holds a hearing with two US Border Patrol senior patrol agents. According to an official familiar with the plan, the White House and the Department of Homeland Security also intend to undertake a rapid response and fact-check House Republicans in real time during the hearing.
The committee’s chairman, Kentucky Republican Rep. James Comer, has accused the Biden administration of sparking “the biggest border catastrophe in American history.”
“From day one in office, President Biden and his administration rolled back deterrent-focused policies, halted border wall construction, gutted interior enforcement, and pushed amnesty for illegal immigrants – all of which have made it difficult for US Border Patrol agents to secure the border,” Comer said in a statement announcing Tuesday’s hearing, vowing to hold the administration accountable.
Border crossings along the southern border have reached all-time highs under Biden, making the issue a key political vulnerability that the newly empowered House Republican majority is ready to exploit. However, officials in the Biden administration observed improvement last month, with daily migrant interactions dropping by more than half as a result of the administration’s new measures.
The White House is also refocusing attention on Republican state officials who are suing to end Biden administration immigration policies, most recently a lawsuit by 20 Republican-led states to halt the expansion of a programme that will allow up to 30,000 migrants from Cuba, Venezuela, Nicaragua, and Haiti to enter the United States each month. Ending these rules will result in “more illegal border crossings,” according to the White House.
“Why won’t House Republicans stand up to Republican state attorneys general who are attempting to increase illegal border crossings by repealing President Biden’s new border enforcement and safe, orderly migration measures?” Sams inquired in the memo.
“House Republicans should join the President in pursuing genuine solutions, not political stunts – and they should answer for their resistance to border security funds and their reluctance to stand up to Republican leaders who are attempting to increase illegal border crossings,” he continued.
