On Thursday, Sen. Steve Daines (R-MT) responded to the news that President Biden had announced he would finally be visiting the U.S.-Mexico border nearly two years after the illegal immigration crisis began.
“President Biden ignored the crisis at our nation’s southern border for nearly two years and it will take more than just one presidential visit to turn things around,” Daines said in a statement. “The President needs to acknowledge there is a crisis, that the current policy is not working and commit to changing course. If he does not and continues the same failed policies of the past two years, it will continue to encourage illegal immigration and only make the crisis worse.”
“November 2022 was the worst November on record when it comes to border encounters with nearly a quarter million according to the President’s own administration,” he continued. “It was also the ninth month in a row of more than 200,000 unlawful encounters. In addition, nearly 3,000 pounds of fentanyl were seized in November alone – up from 1,900 pounds in the previous month. Left unchecked, these illegal drugs will continue to devastate our Montana communities.”
“It is past time for the administration to get serious about the southern border, and I hope President Biden will do so when he visits the border this weekend,” he concluded.
Visiting the border won’t fix the border. @JoeBiden needs to fix this crisis by changing course and stopping the flow of illegal immigrants and fentanyl across our southern border.
My statement below. pic.twitter.com/mt1sFjFyLj
— Steve Daines (@SteveDaines) January 5, 2023
The illegal immigration crisis at the U.S.-Mexico border began shortly after Biden took office in January 2021 as a result of his efforts to dismantle many of the border security policies put in place by the Trump administration. Illegal immigration then surged to record high levels as border officials encountered 1,734,686 migrants attempting to illegally cross the southern border in fiscal year 2021. Fiscal year 2021’s record was shattered the following year with border officials encountering 2,378,944 migrants in fiscal year 2022.