Fox News contributors Marc Thiessen and Richard Fowler entered a heated spat over President Joe Biden’s border policies.
Fowler argued Congress has failed to take action on the crisis at the U.S.-Mexico border as apprehensions have continued to reach record highs. Thiessen, a former Bush-era White House speechwriter, directed the blame toward Biden, arguing that apparent inaction by the administration on the crisis had allowed for the rise in apprehensions and grim crimes.
“Your facts are wrong. Congress does not have to s the president has all the authority he needs to shut down the border tomorrow,” Thiessen said. “In Trump v. Hawaii, this is what the Supreme Court ruled, that the president has unlimited authority to bar any alien from entering the country.”
“But authority’s not the problem, it’s resources,” Fowler interjected.
“No, no, I’m sorry, if he wants to just pass border funding, Congress will pass it tomorrow,” Thiessen responded.
Fox News contributors get into HEATED spat over Biden’s border policies pic.twitter.com/sJgkwIiarF
— Daily Caller (@DailyCaller) June 21, 2024
“That’s not true!” Fowler interrupted.
“Yeah it is, if it’s just pure border funding —” Thiessen said.
“That is actually not true!” Fowler repeated.
Fowler pointed to the Emergency National Security Supplemental Appropriations Act, which intended to shut down the border if the average number of crossings exceeded 5,000 persons a day, and would reopen once it decreased to less than 3,750 persons daily. It also intended to allocate funding toward more agents at the border and aid Ukraine and Israel. (RELATED: ‘Not True And You Know It’: Fox News Segment Gets Heated As Dem, GOP Guests Spar Over Trump’s Immigration Policy)
He referred to the legislation as the “most conservative border bill that we’ve seen in decades,” leading Thiessen to argue the bill would “tie the hands” of an incoming president intending to take strong action on the border.
“It was a terrible border bill that would have tied the hands of Donald Trump,” Thiessen said.
“Yes, exactly, it would tie — you said the quiet part out loud,” Fowler replied. “It would’ve tied the hands of Donald Trump, but it would have also secured the border. It would’ve hired more immigration judges, it would’ve purchased more planes to deport folks who are illegally here and it would’ve also secured the border. I’ve read the bill, I know what’s in there.”
“I’ve read the bill too,” Thiessen said. “Right now, the president — I’m sorry, you’re wrong.”
“I am not wrong,” Fowler said.
“You are one hundred percent wrong. The president right now has unlimited authority, upheld by the Supreme Court, to prevent anyone from entering into the country. This bill would’ve put restrictions on how many people, at what point, how many thousands of people were crossing the border before he could. It would’ve tied the hands of the next president. If you just want to put a bill adding more agents, adding more funding —” Thiessen continued.
“That was in that bill,” Fowler interjected.
“But along with restrictions of the president’s power,” Thiessen said.
Apprehensions have reached record-highs since Biden assumed office in January 2021 and reversed many of the Trump-era policies and restrictions at the border. Apprehensions rose from a total of more than 400,000 in the 2020 fiscal year to over 1.7 million in the 2021 fiscal year—Biden’s first year in office, according to Customs and Border Protection (CBP).
These encounters exceeded 2.3 and 2.4 million in the 2022 and 2023 fiscal years, and has reached nearly 1.7 million in the 2024 fiscal year thus far, according to CBP.
Crimes allegedly committed by illegal immigrants have skyrocketed ahead of the 2024 election. Christian Geovanny Inga-Landi, an illegal immigrant from Ecuador, has been arrested and charged in New York City in connection with the rape of a 13-year-old girl after she and a male friend were tied up in the woods with a shoelace, according to NBC News. Authorities in Maryland arrested 23-year-old Victor Antonio Martinez-Hernandez, an illegal immigrant from El Salvador, in connection with the rape and murder of 37-year-old Rachel Morin, a mother of five.
A Venezuelan national named Jose Ibarra is charged with murdering 22-year-old nursing student Laken Riley after he allegedly disfigured her skull with an inanimate object outside of the University of Georgia’s campus in February, documents obtained by WSB-TV say.
