Bipartisan senators furious with Biden troop deployment to border: ‘Ridiculous theater’
Anna Giaritelli
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Both Democratic and Republican senators are heavily criticizing President Joe Biden and his administration for sending 1,500 U.S. troops to the southern border ahead of what is anticipated to be a historic influx of illegal immigrants next week.
Senate Judiciary Committee members ragged on Biden ending Title 42, a pandemic-era policy that had allowed Border Patrol agents to immediately expel illegal border crossers, and his plan to send in the military without granting them the legal authorities to make arrests.
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“Come next week, all hell is going to break out all along the border and eventually … flow into the United States,” said Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), the top Republican on the committee, during a press conference on Capitol Hill Wednesday. “It’s ridiculous theater. It will not change the outcome.”
Texas Republican Sens. Ted Cruz and John Cornyn also objected to the deployments.
“Boots on the ground are an important part of how you secure the border,” Cruz said during the press conference. “However, under Joe Biden, the 1,500 troops he’s sending will accomplish nothing to secure the border. The troops on the border are beneficial if you have a policy … you deport [illegal immigrants]. As long as the Biden administration keeps in place catch and release, he could send 1,500 [troops], he could send 15,000, he could send 100,000, it will do nothing to secure the border.”
Under the Posse Comitatus Act of 1878, active-duty troops do not have the authority to enforce federal laws, including immigration laws.
On Tuesday, Senate Foreign Affairs Chairman Robert Menendez (D-NJ) came out strongly against the White House’s plan and said the Biden administration has had years to prepare but failed to come up with an appropriate response.
“The Biden Administration’s militarization of the border is unacceptable,” Menendez said in a statement. “There is already a humanitarian crisis in the Western Hemisphere, and deploying military personnel only signals that migrants are a threat that require our nation’s troops to contain. Nothing could be further from the truth.”
Menendez further criticized the White House for overlooking his proposal.
“I have offered them a strategic and comprehensive plan, which they have largely ignored,” Menendez said. “Trying to score political points or intimidate migrants by sending the military to the border caters to the Republican Party’s xenophobic attacks on our asylum system.”
The Department of Homeland Security and State Department disclosed Tuesday plans to dispatch active-duty military to the border, where a couple thousand are already deployed in non-law enforcement roles. The new troops will monitor technology that detects ground and air activity near the border and not interact with immigrants, DHS said in a statement.
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“These 1,500 military personnel will fill critical capability gaps, such as ground-based detection and monitoring, data entry, and warehouse support, until CBP can address these needs through contracted support. They will not be doing any law enforcement work,” the statement added.
At present, some parts of the border, including El Paso and Brownsville, Texas, are collectively apprehending several thousand illegal immigrants each day as numbers continued to rise over the weekend. Border Patrol officials feared that it will only grow worse in the lead-up to and after Title 42 goes away.
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