While President Biden is taking heat from his own party for the inhumane handling of Haitian migrants, Republicans on Capitol Hill are also criticizing the administration for allowing thousands of unvetted migrants into the country.
U.S. Rep. Michael Cloud (R-TX) told CBN News his state is completely overrun by what’s happening at the border and said it’s time the Biden administration takes it seriously.
“Five of the 13 counties I represent have already declared a disaster,” Cloud said.
CBN News joined Cloud on a Congressional CODEL trip to the U.S. southern border last June. Cloud said since then, things have only gotten worse.
“The federal government is not cooperating with local agencies, local authorities, local judges when it comes to anything that’s going on at the border and so it’s our hospitals that are left to deal with it,” he said. “It’s our schools that are left to figure out how to deal with this situation.”
“There are new diseases that have been virtually eradicated from the U.S. that we’re now having to deal with once again and so this is a very serious situation,” the Texas congressman added.
Cloud claimed the situation is one of complete lawlessness at the border.
“You look at what’s happening at the border and it’s just no-holds-barred virtually open borders,” he said. “The effort to intentionally overwhelm our system so that it collapses is really tragic coming from the Biden administration.”
On Thursday, U.S. Special Envoy for Haiti Daniel Foote resigned saying he did not want to be associated with the administration’s “inhumane, counterproductive decision to deport thousands of Haitian refugees.”
During Thursday’s White House press briefing, Press Secretary Jen Psaki addressed Democrats’ criticism of the Haitian deportations.
“First of all, they’re not deportations,” she said. “People are not coming into the country through legal methods.”
“And again, our policy process has continued to be the same with Haiti as it is for anybody coming through an irregular — through irregular migration across our border,” Psaki continued.
Key parts of President Biden’s agenda are also in jeopardy on Capitol Hill even after progressive and moderate Democrats announced a “framework” agreement over what could be a $3.5 trillion budget reconciliation bill.
“A big part of what we’re talking about here, which is not a secret to all of you, is the size of the package, right?” explained Psaki. “There is a range of different viewpoints on that. That’s part of what the discussion is, and that will certainly impact as — what we — as we look toward how we’re going to unify moving forward.”
Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen is also warning Congress they need to act fast to address the debt ceiling before the government runs out of money to pay its bills or the economic fallout will be catastrophic.
Despite the looming crisis, Republicans say they will not vote with Democrats to raise the debt ceiling.
Cloud said lawmakers need to stop kicking the can down the road by continuing to raise the debt ceiling and instead focus on balancing the budget.
“The thing to do is to spend less money,” he told CBN News. “Let’s do what every American family does, let’s set priorities. Let’s live within our means as a nation or we’re going to end up bankrupting this nation for future generations.”
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