Republican Pennsylvania Rep. Mike Kelly and Democratic New Jersey Rep. Donald Payne sparred over who is to blame for the surge in illegal immigration in recent years during a hearing on the crisis at the northern border Tuesday.
Kelly testified during the hearing, which was titled “Biden’s Growing Border Crisis: Death, Drugs, and Disorder on the Northern Border,” to discuss his concerns with the Biden administration’s border policies amid a surge in illegal immigration in recent years. Border Patrol agents in the Swanton sector in Vermont, New York and New Hampshire have recently seen an 846% increase in illegal migrant apprehensions.
Payne used his opening statement to criticize Republicans for only bringing the attention to the issue under the Biden administration, when they can blame the Democratic president.
“The facts do not support the Republican claim that the northern border is quote a source of death, drugs and disorder,” Payne said, sharing a previous quote from his Republican colleague dismissing concern for the U.S.-Canadian border.
Payne also labeled a bill backed by Republican New York Rep. Claudia Tenney as “problematic” because it only addresses the crisis at the southern border. Tenney later said she’d agree to add the northern border to the bill’s purview.
“If we’re gonna be here and discuss this today, and clearly we are, I want to make sure that everybody understands that this is not a problem that began under the Biden administration. In 2019, the GAO highlighted the Trump administration’s decision to focus on the southwest border, which led to a significant staffing and resource challenge at the northern border. In fact, the Trump administration compounded that problem then that same year by terminating a contract with an outside contractor,” Payne said, adding that the Trump administration’s decision led to a surge at the time of illegal migrants.
WATCH:
Kelly testified that there needs to be bipartisan cooperation to address the surges at all U.S. borders rather than partisan fighting over who is to blame.
“Ranking member, I appreciate what you went through in the beginning, but it always comes down to ‘no, no, not us, them.’ Now you talk about pieces of legislation that have some information, but it gets blurred to what the total ‘side’ of the legislation is.”
Payne then interjected.
WATCH:
“Will the gentleman yield,” Payne asked.
“No, I will not yield right now. I will not yield,” Kelly responded. “It’s taken us too long to get here.”
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