Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas pushed back Sunday on Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s recent remarks that President Joe Biden should use more executive authority to take action on the southern border.
“He couldn’t be more wrong,” Mayorkas said of the Republican governor in an interview with CNN’s Dana Bash on “State of the Union.”
“As a matter of fact, former President Trump tried to close the border, and it was enjoined in the courts and never saw the light of day,” the secretary said, before later adding, “The reality is that Congress needs to act, and President Biden said that Congress needs to get a spine.”
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Last week on “State of the Union,” Abbott said Biden was “not using his executive authority to do any of those things that Congress has already authorized. The president does not need new laws.”
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Senate Republicans last month blocked a bipartisan border bill – which would have enabled restrictive border measures and was crafted in part by a GOP senator – amid a torrent of attacks on the bill by former President Donald Trump and top House Republicans.
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