Rep. Jim McGovern (D-MA) criticized Republicans’ comments on the border in response to remarks by Rep. Michael Burgess (R-TX) on the House floor as the chamber debated the rules for immigration policy bills Tuesday.
“Let me set a couple of things straight: The border is not open. Now, maybe some people think it is because my Republican colleagues every day for the last two years have come to the floor screaming, ‘The border is open, the border is open, the border is open.’ But the border is not open, and that is just a fact,” McGovern said.
“Today there are approximately 38,000 people in immigration detention, which is 4,000 more than what DHS is funded for, and roughly what the Trump administration averaged in fiscal year 2018. The Biden administration has also significantly increased removals in ways that many on our side of the aisle are concerned violates due process,” McGovern continued. “Since the end of Title 42 last year, the Biden administration has removed or returned to Mexico close to 500,000 individuals. The total is nearly equivalent to the number of people removed in all of fiscal year 2019 under the Trump administration.”
…
“So please, please stop making things up, and stop claiming the border is open. It is not. Do we have a problem at the border? Absolutely. Absolutely, we do. But listening to the gentleman who has no solutions, I mean, I think he thinks this is Beetlejuice — if you say ‘crisis’ three times, the problem goes away,” McGovern added, referring to Burgess’ comments. “No, you got to take some action. You got to work to try to address the issue. Democrats and President Biden want to find real comprehensive solutions to fix it. What we need is Republicans to stop playing political games.”
…
