(Robert Jonathan, Headline USA) During a national TV interview earlier this week, Democrat-turned-independent U.S. Sen. Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona rebuked Biden administration officials for absurdly claiming that the border is secure.
In a perhaps surprising development, even her likely far-left challenger in 2024 has also levied criticism at the unprepared Democrat-run White House and executive branch in this context.
U.S. Rep. Ruben Gallego, D-Ariz., insisted that southern border cities and towns “are simply unequipped to handle the surge of migrants,” with Title 42 expiring on May 11, NBC News reported,
The congressman indicated that that the there is a lack of communication from Team Biden down to the local level about their actual strategy, which includes limited resources such as the deployment of 1,500 troops to certain border areas, for the crisis.
“Title 42 was eventually going to get stripped down, and we needed to have a plan to move forward. In the meantime, what we can do is agree that these towns need help,” Gelled said. “They should not be taking it on the chin because the federal government has failed to come up with a solution and surge forward a lot of resources and money that they need.”
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre has already announced that the relatively small number of soldiers will handle so-called administrative tasks rather than actual interdiction.
Implemented under the Trump administration during COVID, Title 42 allows border officials to reject asylum claims and turn away some undocumented migrants on the basis of public health.
Sinema, who left the Democrat Party last December but generally still votes for most of the Biden agenda as she has previously been doing, has yet to formally announce whether she will seek another term in the upper chamber.
In the meantime, she has reportedly raked in about $2 million in campaign donations in 1Q, including from various RINOs.
Gallego has raised almost double that amount, however. Whoever is the endorsed Democrat in an anticipated three-way race will likely benefit from the usual Maricopa County election hocus-pocus.
The GOP candidate will emerge from what is shaping to be a multi-candidate primary.
In the 50-50 Senate in the last Congress, Sinema could have used her all-important vote as leverage for border security, but apparently did not do so. A looming reelection campaign, however, sometimes focuses the attention of a politician.
Sinema’s support — along with that of Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., — for retaining the filibuster, however, arguably prevented America from devolving into full-on socialism in the prior legislative session
Sitting next to her in the studio during a Fox News Special Report interview earlier this week, Sen. James Lankford, R-Okla., pointed out that, with advice from the cartels, illegal aliens are easily gaming the asylum system to gain entry and stay in the U.S.
In addition to teaming up with Lankford on the illegal immigration issue, Sinema and U.S. Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., are reportedly crafting legislation “that would grant a temporary two-year authority to expel migrants from the United States similar to what is currently allowed under Title 42,” Politico reported on Thursday.
Sens. Machin and John Cornyn, R-Texas, are co-sponsors of the measure.
“A key distinction is that the extension being proposed by Tillis and Sinema…does not rely on a public health order, making it functionally different from the Trump-era program that Biden kept in place.”
In the FNC appearance, Sinema slammed the Biden administration for failing to plan ahead though it had plenty of notice that Title 42 was coming to an end.
Upon taking office, the Biden administration threw open the southern border, which promptly created a humanitarian, law enforcement and national security disaster that is ongoing and appears about to get even worse.
Eleven Senate Republican have called upon Joe Biden to keep Title 42 in place.
