Senator Kyrsten Sinema, a Independent from Arizona, blasted President Joe Biden on Tuesday over the ongoing border crisis, saying that he had “two years to prepare for this” and that his administration is “not doing enough.”
“The Biden administration is not doing enough to secure our border and protect our communities,” Sinema said in a statement. “We need to take immediate action to address this crisis, and I urge the administration to work with Congress to do so.”
“Having 1,500 troops along the U.S.-Mexico border is helpful. It is a border of over 2,000 miles though,” she continued. “So 1,500 troops isn’t gonna get the job done. That’s just the reality.”
Sinema made these statements as the crisis is expected to intensify this week as Title 42 is set to end.
“We also are very concerned that all this is happening in the week or so before the rollout,” Sinema said. “Just today, I was on the phone with a sheriff of Cochise County. He has gotten no information from the Department of Homeland Security or the federal government about what the flow is going to look like, about what they can expect for processing in terms of how long it takes to process migrants. He’s got no information.”
She ended her comments with this indictment against Biden and his administration:
“We’ve had two years to prepare for this,” Sinema said of the Biden administration’s window to prepare for the end of Title 42. “I think that there’s a system in Washington, D.C. that is deeply disconnected from the real lives and experiences of border communities and the migrants who seek to come to this country.”
The border crisis is a major political issue for the Biden administration. Republicans have repeatedly criticized the administration’s handling of the border, and they are likely to make it a major issue in the midterm elections.
.@SenatorSinema says Arizona border officials haven't received information on migrant processing and transporting as Title 42 expires.
"Either the administration has that information and they’re choosing not to share it…or they don't have it and that's even more concerning." pic.twitter.com/xVNxDRZSfu
— Face The Nation (@FaceTheNation) May 7, 2023
