A top House intelligence official on Sunday called the migrant crisis an “unbelievable human tragedy” but warned it also threatened national security.
Chairman of the Select Intelligence Committee of the House of Rep. Mike Turner (R-Ohio) blamed the Biden White House for the “extraordinary flood” of asylum seekers entering the country.
The intel chair, speaking on WABC 770 AM’s “Cat Roundtable,” said it was the fault of the executive branch for allowing immigrants to cross the border earlier this year after the expiration of a 2020 policy that turned them away because of the COVID-19 health emergency.
“It’s really the policy of the Biden administration. Their policy is open borders, so that’s the situation we’re in, you can tell the extraordinary influx we’ve had since the Trump administration, people crossing the border,” Turner told the show’s fill-in host, former Chairman Homeland Security House Rep. Peter King (R-LI) and former New York State Judge Richard Weinberg.
“Some of them are looking for a better life, but some of them intend to hurt us,” Turner claimed, referring to the small portion of asylum seekers found on the FBI’s terrorism watch list.
Chairman of the Select Intelligence Committee of the House of Rep. Mike Turner said the White House Sunday was to blame for the surge in immigration. Getty Images
Migrants crossed the Rio Grande on their way to seek asylum in the US in May. AFP via Getty Images
“No control at our border means we can’t choose who comes here, it means those who choose and the people who choose themselves have their own reasons for coming,” he said.
“It’s an unbelievable human tragedy, the story of people who made this journey, who believed in the Biden administration’s response, that they would find a better life. But along the way, they were taken advantage of. You have human trafficking, you have cartels, you have risk of life.”
Turner’s comments came even as he touted his panel’s “bipartisan approach” and praised his relationship with ranking committee member Democrat Rep. Jim Himes of Connecticut.
Weinberg, a Dem ideologically across the aisle from Turner, agreed with the Intelligence Committee chairman.
“As a Democrat in the room, I am deeply concerned by the failure of the Biden administration to provide for national security,” Weinberg said.
As leaders from both parties hammered the White House over immigration to the US, lawmakers remain deadlocked on major immigration reform.Getty Images
“We have open borders. It is now a national problem. It used to be a problem, border states, especially Texas.
Weinberg’s remarks came as New York City Mayor Eric Adams, also a Democrat, has repeatedly called on Washington to take action to stem the steady flow of more than 100,000 immigrants who have come to the Big Apple since last spring.
“I don’t have the legal authority to tell people they can get out, only the federal government can do that,” Adams lamented on PIX11’s “PIX on Politics” on Sunday. “It’s against the law to tell the bus you can’t get on.”
Last week, Hizzoner warned the migrant crisis could “destroy” five counties.
Congress has long been deadlocked on immigration reform measures, which have not been updated since 1986.
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Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
