Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ) slammed President Joe Biden this week for his border crisis, saying that it is, in fact, “a crisis” and his administration must do more to fix the problem, which has burst open the flood gates of illegal immigration in her state.
“So the reality is, is that this is a crisis. We all know it,” Sinema said on Thursday. “And the federal government must do more to address this surge of migrants who are coming to the border with increasing numbers each year. And I’m like, you probably know this, but we’re looking at numbers this year that are the highest numbers of crossings that we’ve seen in 20 years in Arizona.
“So we really are seeing how this problem has been exacerbated and gotten worse,” Sinema added. Sinema said that she was waiting for the administration to “take bold action” to fix the crisis, saying that communities in her state cannot afford to sit around and wait for officials to sit around and talk about how to fix the situation.
Sinema said that migrants are getting dumped into communities in her state and those communities have nowhere to put them. “And literally the mayor is putting these folks in his vehicle and driving them to Tucson or Phoenix to get them to shelters,” Sinema said. “That’s not acceptable.”
Sinema’s remarks come as Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-TX) slammed the Biden administration this week after the administration released photos this week that sought to portray the conditions on the ground as improving.
Cueller said that the administration was engaged in a “shell game,” which Oxford Languages defines as “a deceptive and evasive action or ploy, especially a political one.”
“All they’re doing is moving kids from one tent to the other tent and saying oh, they’re out of Border Patrol custody but they’re next door, next door in HHS,” Cuellar said.
Cuellar slammed Biden for failing to talk about his border crisis during his congressional address last week. “I did notice that the president did not talk about the border,” he said. “There is a border crisis, no ifs about it. The numbers are still high.”
Arizona Democrat Senator Mark Kelly also sounded off on Biden on the matter, calling Biden’s border crisis a “crisis” and saying that more federal resources were needed to fix it.
“This continues to be a major problem that shouldn’t fall on the shoulders of Arizona communities. And I think it was important to highlight that it wasn’t part of the address last night,” Kelly said. “We’ve got to address this and it can’t be on Arizona taxpayers and Arizona towns that are really struggling right now. It’s a federal government problem.”
Related:
- Mexico ‘Worried’ That Biden Is ‘Stoking Illegal Immigration,’ ‘Creating Business For Organized Crime’: Report
- Biden Finally Admits That The Border Crisis That Has Erupted Under His Presidency Is A ‘Crisis’
This report has been updated to include additional information.