GOP Rep Blasts White House’s Border Response

(DailyVantage.com) – The administration of President Joe Biden continues to get flak from Republicans over its consistently haphazard and lackadaisical response to the crisis at the U.S. border.

The latest criticism comes from Republican New York Representative Mike Lawler, who called the White House response to the migrant crisis as “a joke.”

The remarks come as the White House fired back at the sustained criticism it has received over its response the large influx of migrants at the border, most especially at the U.S. – Mexico ports of entry.

A number of Republican legislators recently made a trip down to the border America shares with Mexico, led by Speaker of the House Mike Johnson. The trip prompted some to reconsider their hesitancy to leverage funding the federal government in order to pass more stringent immigration policies with Democrats, who largely oppose stricter rules down at the border. Republicans are pushing for H.R. 2, a conservative border security bill that significantly expands the deportation authority of border agents, as well as policies such as “Remain in Mexico” – initiatives that were last seen and employed during the administration of former president Donald Trump.

The White House, however, blasted the trip, with its spokesperson, Andrew Bates, called the trip a stunt, and accused House GOP members of “hamstringing our border security in the name of extreme, partisan demands.” Bates also claimed that Republicans were “exacerbating” the issues at the border instead of helping to resolve them.

Representative Lawler took issue with those comments, saying that “House Republicans are the only ones that have done anything on border security.” He also in turn accused the Biden administration of “dereliction of duty” in terms of enforcing border security.

Migrant encounters at the border for the year 2023 broke records, with more than 252,000 encounters recorded at the border under the Title 42 public health order alone, which allows migrants to be quickly turned away at ports of entry. Title 42, however, is set to face a legal challenge that will likely be decided by the Supreme Court. In December last year, migrant encounters were set at more than 200,000, with more than 10,000 encounters daily.