Republican Florida Rep. María Salazar said Monday that President Joe Biden is using immigrants as political “pawns” to advance his immigration agenda.
Salazar made the remark during a discussion with Fox News host Martha MacCallum about the practice of sending illegal migrants to liberal sanctuary cities like Martha’s Vineyard and Washington, D.C. Several Democratic politicians, including California Gov. Gavin Newsom, have called for criminal investigations into Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott for pursing the policy, according to Politico.
Salazar told MacCallum the immigration system in the U.S. has long been broken and emphasized the need for comprehensive immigration reform. Salazar also touted the Dignity Act, which she introduced in February. The legislation would secure the border, hire additional border patrol agents and create a pathway to citizenship, according to a press release from Salazar’s office.
“The Biden administration is full of hypocrites. We are tired as Latinos, browns, as members of the largest minority in the country of hearing that — this finger pointing,” Salazar told MacCallum. (RELATED: Charlamagne Tha God Calls Gov. DeSantis A ‘Genius’)
“All the governors are desperate. Not only in the red states, in the blue states too, as I’m sure you reported. Every time a group of migrants come in, they have to declare an emergency. This is a major embarrassment, and the only people who are to blame is the Biden administration,” she continued. “They have not acknowledged that we have a major problem. My people are being used as pawns. Like the whole Democrat system has been using for the last 35 years.”
Salazar’s comments come just days after DeSantis flew two planes full of migrants to Martha’s Vineyard and Abbott sent two buses of migrants to Vice President Kamala Harris’ residence in Washington, D.C. Within 48 hours of receiving approximately 50 migrants, Republican Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker activated the state’s National Guard to ship the migrants from Martha’s Vineyard to a military base on Cape Cod.