Republican National Committee Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel said Tuesday that President Joe Biden’s border policies are placing families “in the hands of the cartels.”
“I think he’s doing tremendous harm to these families who are coming here with hope and want to come to the United States of America, but are being put in the hands of cartels,” McDaniel said on Fox News’ “The Faulkner Focus.” (RELATED: EXCLUSIVE: Maria Bartiromo Explains How Cartels Exploit Biden’s ‘Catch And Release’ Policy)
The president increased the refugee cap on Monday to 62,500 after receiving criticism that the current administration was acting too slow to change the cap put in place by former President Donald Trump. Trump ordered a 15,000 refugee cap for the 2021 fiscal year, a number the current president and other Democrats said was too low.
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U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents have encountered 101,028 migrants at the southwest border in the fiscal year to date, as of February, and that number surged to 172,331 in March, according to CBP data.
McDaniel said when she talked a week ago with Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, “he said there isn’t a single person coming across our border who isn’t being dealt with for the cartels.”
“They have to pay the cartels to cross into the United States of America and many, many children are dying along the way and suffering horrific abuses as they come to this country,” McDaniel said.
McDaniel criticized Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris for not visiting the border or working with governors who are facing the issue. McDaniel said Biden “keeps throwing quick fixes out there that appease the Democrat Progressive left without actually solving a root problem.”
“So he’s putting a policy in place. He keeps [Democratic New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez] happy, and [Democratic Illinois Sen. Dick] Durbin and the progressive left, but it is a catastrophe for everybody who’s dealing with it in real time in our southern states,” McDaniel said.
“I feel so bad for our border patrol agents who are so overwhelmed right now and they have a president and a White House who doesn’t care about them and the task they’re undertaking,” McDaniel said.
McDaniel said border states and border staff will be overwhelmed due to the president continuing “to draw people to this country illegally.”
“It’s impacting children at a significant rate, many who are dying as they make this journey,” McDaniel said.
McDaniel accused the president of failing to hold up his promise of bringing people together, claiming Biden doesn’t want to work with Republicans. She said Biden and Harris not visiting the border “shows that he’s not really interested in solving the problem.”
“He’s interested in giving to his progressive friends and making sure they get their win,” McDaniel said.
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