CNN’s Poppy Harlow pressed Democratic New Jersey Sen. Bob Menendez on Tuesday as to whether the Biden Administration has “failed” to handle the border crisis.
Menendez was detailing his new immigration proposal, which includes creating new pathways to citizenship, boosting humanitarian aid to certain nations, increasing border security funding and going after human traffickers. Menendez highlighted certain issues with the border as of now, prompting Harlow to question whether the Biden Administration has dropped the ball.
“Senator, it sounds to me like you’re saying, so I’ll ask you, are you saying that the Biden administration has failed on immigration on the southern border?
“The Biden administration had a vision, which I introduced into legislation in the first year of the administration. That was the right vision, but unfortunately it didn’t put the pandemic and then other issues, it didn’t put the effort behind it necessary to realize the goal. And so now it finds itself reacting to what’s happening at the border,” Menendez said.
“And instead of having a more broader plan and a vision that actually can embrace dealing with countries so that people don’t come to the border in the first place, to be able to process those who do come to the border in an efficient manner and those who don’t have a right then have to get rejected and then, lastly, creating new legal pathways that have shown themselves even some of the administration’s initiatives have shown themselves to stem the tide from certain countries when you create a new legal pathway. All of those things would dramatically change the reality of the southern border. I hope that they could take this moment and actually change course in a way that can actually make for a more secure, safer border,” he continued.
“The Biden administration has not called this a crisis,” Harlow said. “Despite repeated asks, I asked Secretary Mayorkas that a few months ago, 60 minutes just asked him if this is a crisis, he does not call it a crisis. Do you call it a crisis?” (RELATED: Border Encounters With Potential Terrorists On Pace To Shatter Previous Record)
“Well, I don’t call it a crisis, but it can become one if you understand that there are 20 million people in the western hemisphere in Latin America and Central America who are displaced, who are refugees, who are seeking asylum across the hemisphere. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that unless we work with other countries in the hemisphere, they’re going to make their march up north, so the numbers we’re looking at now would be insignificant compared to 20 million people on the march. This is the time to engage them where they are.”
During a recent 60 Minutes interview, Mayorkas refused to call the situation at the border a crisis, arguing that a “crisis” is a “withdrawal” of a situation while his agency is increasing efforts to mitigate the migrant surge.