The Democrat mayor of Eagle Pass, Texas, held Joe Biden and his administration responsible for the unprecedented influx of illegal immigrants at the southern border, asserting that the federal government had “abandoned” Eagle Pass.
Mayor Rolando Salinas of Eagle Pass shared with CNN on Thursday that he had declared a state of emergency in response to over 5,000 undocumented immigrants entering the border town from Mexico in just five days. When questioned about whether he blames Joe Biden for the crisis, Salinas said that he does.
“I’ll be honest with you, I believe 100 percent, he does bear some responsibility for this crisis,” Salinas said. “I haven’t heard from anybody in the administration. The president hasn’t put out a statement, the vice president – I haven’t heard from anybody. Nobody has bothered to call me or anyone in the city staff saying, ‘hey, this is the federal government, we’re worried about you, this is our plan of action.’”
“Nothing,” Salinas continued. “We’re here, abandoned, we’re on the border, we’re asking for help. This is unacceptable.”
Salinas then implored the Biden Administration to enforce existing immigration laws and emphasized that unregulated illegal immigration is “not fair” to those who enter the country through legal channels.
“Please, just enforce the laws that are on the books. We’re a nation of laws, that’s all I ask for. It shouldn’t be like this,” Salinas said. “We should be able to enforce laws.”
“If you wanna come here, good – come legally. A lot of people have in the past. It takes a lot of money and years to do it the right way,” he continued. “And it’s not fair to those people that now you have thousands of people coming in without one single consequence. It’s just not fair.”
Watch:
Eagle Pass, TX Mayor Rolando Salinas: Biden is to blame for the border crisis and no one from his administration has called us as thousands illegally cross into the city. We're here abandoned. pic.twitter.com/xZBMYL8MNe
— Julio Rosas (@Julio_Rosas11) September 21, 2023
In August, there were a total of 232,972 migrant encounters at the southern border, as reported by U.S. Customs and Border Patrol. This marked the highest number for the entire calendar year and also set a record as the highest August figure on record.
