President calls on Congress to pass border security bill during visit to Brownsville
During his visit to Brownsville, U.S. President Joe Biden urged former President Donald Trump to join him in asking Congress to pass a bipartisan bill that would address immigration and border security.
“Join me or I’ll join you in telling the Congress to pass this bipartisan border security bill,” Biden said. “We can do it together. You know and I know it is the toughest, most efficient, most effective, border security bill this country has ever seen.”
Biden visited the Brownsville Border Patrol Station earlier today to hear the necessities of the border agencies and speak about a bill that would increase the help on border cities.
Biden listened to the concerns from officers of the U.S. Customs and Border Protection, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, and U.S Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Officers from the three agencies explained to Biden their main areas of opportunities and their most crucial needs.
Biden said it is time to act on the bipartisan border security bill that would help address the immigration influx, adding the country cannot wait any longer.
“They desperately need more resources, more agents, more officers, more judges, more equipment, in order to secure our border,” he said.
Biden said the bill in Congress includes a comprehensive plan to fix the “broken immigration system,” but he has yet to hear a response.
He added months ago, he and his team began negotiations with a bipartisan group of senators, which includes Republicans and Democrats, that resulted in a border security deal that the “country has never seen.”
“It’s pretty basic,” Biden said. “With this deal, we could hire 1,500 additional border security agents. … We also need more immigration judges [to] help handle the backlog.”
He said the bill would introduce a new efficient and fair process for the government to consider asylum claims and reduce the estimated wait time from five to seven years to less than six months.
“[The] U.S. Senate needs to reconsider this bill, and those senators who opposed it need to set politics aside and pass it on merits,” Biden said.
Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas echoed Biden’s comments about the importance of passing bipartisan legislation.
“The importance of passing the bipartisan legislation to fix our broken immigration system and add much needed resources cannot be overstated,” Mayorkas said. “Nor can the heroism of our personnel who accomplish so much for our country.”
Trump also made a stop to a Texas border city, Eagle Pass, today where he was joined by Gov. Greg Abbott.
