A Democratic Senator from Arizona criticized President Joe Biden for not addressing the ongoing surge of illegal immigration taking place at the U.S.-Mexico border during his first speech to Congress on Wednesday night.
Senator Mark Kelly said, “While I share President Biden’s urgency in fixing our broken immigration system, what I didn’t hear tonight was a plan to address the immediate crisis at the border,” Kelly said in a statement following the president’s speech. “I will continue holding this administration accountable to deliver the resources and staffing necessary for a humane, orderly process as we work to improve border security, support local economies, and fix our immigration system.”
Throughout March, Border Officials encountered over 172,000 individuals attempting to illegally enter the U.S. at the southern border.
According to a report from U.S. Customs and Border Protection, during the first three months of 2021 over 351,800 individuals were encountered by border agents. During the same three-month period of 2020, there were 107,700 documented encounters.
Arizona Governor Doug Ducey shared Kelly’s opinion on the matter, asserting that his state has taken a toll from the immigration surge because of “mixed signals” from the White House.
“If you want to stop the disaster that’s unfolding here and will only get worse in the coming months, President Biden, you should declare a national emergency and deploy the vast powers of your administration to stop what’s happening here,” Ducey said after deploying 250 Arizona National Guard troops to assist law enforcement at the border.
