A group of GOP governors outlined a ten-point plan to end the crisis at the U.S.-Mexico border on Wednesday and called on President Biden to address the ongoing surge of migrants entering the U.S.
Speaking in Mission, Texas, with eight other governors, Texas governor Greg Abbott said the president “has caused a humanitarian crisis and chaos on our border,” according to Fox News.
“All Americans saw what happened in Del Rio, Texas just last month and we know that chaos will be repeated unless and until President Biden takes action,” he said.
Nebraska governor Pete Ricketts said Biden “must act.”
“He cannot ignore this humanitarian and national security crisis any more,” he said.
While Department of Homeland Security secretary Alejandro Mayorkas has claimed that “poverty, high levels of violence and corruption in Mexico and the Northern Triangle countries” are to blame for an influx of migrants illegally entering the U.S., Republicans have said it is Biden who is at fault for the surge, after he loosened immigration restrictions.
Biden rescinded the Trump-era Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP) and reinstated “catch and release.” Experts say Biden’s plan to create a pathway to citizenship for 11 million undocumented immigrants has served as an incentive for migrants to attempt to cross the border.
“It’s not a secret anymore. They have created this crisis and Americans know it,” Arizona governor Doug Ducey said.
The group’s plan includes a recommendation that the Biden administration fully restore MPP, as it was recently ordered to do by a federal court. The policy, also known as “Remain in Mexico,” forces migrants to await their U.S. immigration court dates in Mexico.
The governors also prescribed the end of “catch-and-release,” more border-wall construction, an expansion of Title 42 expulsions, and the deployment of additional federal law enforcement to the border.
The Biden administration has struggled to get a grip on the devastating situation at the border: Last month, Border Patrol agents were overwhelmed by more than 15,000 migrants who streamed across the border and camped out under the international bridge in Del Rio, Texas.
Border Patrol agents encountered more than 200,000 migrants at the southern border in both July and August.
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