National Border Patrol Council Vice President Art Del Cueto told CNN Wednesday that President Joe Biden’s executive order “does not do enough” to stop the migrant crisis at the U.S.-Mexico border.
Despite insisting for months that he was powerless to address the migrant crisis through executive action, Biden announced an executive order Tuesday that aims to control on the daily illegal migrant crossings taking place at the southern border. However, the president did not place a hard-stop on illegal crossings; he capped new asylum requests after illegal migrant crossings reach a daily average of 2,500 over the span of one week.
Cueto told CNN anchor Alisyn Camerota that he is unsatisfied with the “gaps” in Biden’s long-awaited executive approach toward the border crisis.
“I know what you’re saying, it’s not perfect, but isn’t it better?” Camerota asked.
“There’s still not pure direction on what’s going to happen with individuals from other countries besides Mexico. Where are they going to send them to? They’re not going to be able to return those individuals directly back to Mexico that easy, unless there’s some agreement with the president and the president of Mexico. So those are some of the gaps,” Cueto said.
Cueto pointed out that drug cartels in Mexico control who crosses into the United States. He told Camerota that drug cartels will prioritize letting “those that they want to come across the border” even if they are limited to 2,500 at a time. (RELATED: ‘Stay On The Rollercoaster’: CNN Host Confronts Dem Senator On Biden ‘Going Wrong’ With Black Voters)
Camerota pivoted to the abandoned “Bipartisan Border Bill” that appropriated $48 billion in foreign aid to Ukraine and $16 billion to aid Israel. She blamed presumptive 2024 Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump for the legislation’s failure.
“Trump did not want to give Biden a win, so Trump insisted that the Republicans turn against basically their own bill. He effectively killed it. So how much responsibility does former President Trump bare for this problem?” the CNN host asked.
“The problem falls under this administration because it started with this administration just with rhetoric alone. That’s when you saw the numbers going up,” Cueto said of the Biden administration. “And then added, you know, yes, you’re talking about the bill in Congress, but realistically, now that President Biden had the power to do something about it, he didn’t do enough.”
Cueto pushed back when Camerota asked if he blames Congress for the border crisis, making it clear that he believes lawmakers, not the former president, ultimately decided to tank the bill.
“At the time, it was killed through them. Now it falls on President Biden,” Cueto said. “He could have done something three and a half years ago. He could have done something a year ago. He could have done something two years ago. But now it falls on him to do the executive order and end it. This order does not do enough.”
Biden was bombarded with criticism from both the left and the right toward his executive action on the border. Joe Chester, communications manager for the Federation for American Immigration Reform, told the Daily Caller News Foundation that the president’s order still allows 1.8 million illegal crossings annually. More than 6 million illegal border crossings were reported during Biden’s entire presidency.
Lora Ries, border and immigration director for the Heritage Foundation, told the DCNF that the “ACLU has already stated it will sue.” She slammed Biden for taking action for the following three reasons: (1) to “claim he ‘did something,’ regarding the border,” (2) to “blame Congressional Republicans,” and (3) to encourage “the Administration’s ally leftist groups to sue the executive branch to halt implementation of this exception-riddled order.”
