Sheriff Joe Frank Martinez, a Democrat who serves on the border in Val Verde County, Texas, called out Washington politicians for their passive response to the immigration crisis in a USA Today opinion piece on Wednesday.
“I don’t know whether to laugh or to cry when I hear Washington politicians arguing whether or not the number of migrants crossing our southern border has reached the point of ‘crisis,’” Martinez wrote.
“I know there’s a crisis,” he continued. “We are living it, every single day.”
Martinez’s criticism of the President Joe Biden and his administration comes amid the nation’s most disastrous border crisis in years.
Biden has ignored the problem, opting instead to delegate it to Vice President Kamala Harris.
She has said she intends to focus her efforts on a diplomatic push, addressing the problem by offering more support to the so-called asylum seekers’ countries of origin.
Yet Harris, an outspoken advocate for open borders while serving as California senator, has failed thus far to get the the mass influx of illegals under control.
US Border Patrol projects that more than a million illegals will enter the country by the end of the year.
Since reversing many of former president Donald Trump‘s border-containment policies, Biden has appeared reluctant to establish clear policies of his own.
Yet, facing pressure from Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, the president recently revised his opinion on completing Trump’s border wall.
In his editorial, Martinez emphasized the dangers of the immigration influx, noting that Border Patrol and county police were both vastly understaffed and underfunded.
“Besides lacking adequate police resources to protect our community given the current situation, we have no real transportation system to move these individuals once they are released by Border Patrol,” he said.
The Biden administration’s failure has also led to the overrunning of border towns, which lack the necessary funding or facilities.
“[T]he city of Del Rio is loaning two buildings to a small local volunteer group where the migrants can be fed, cared for and helped to make connections to relatives or friends at their chosen destinations,” Martinez added. “If overnight accommodations are required, the city is forced to man the area with either a police officer or fireman, tying up those resources.”
Despite his pleas, Washington politicians have refused to respond.
“If they could stay a few days and see the madness and mayhem going on right now, there’d be no more wasting time trying to decide whether the border situation is a “crisis” or not,” Martinez wrote.
