How many Republicans do you think are looking out of the office windows doing the Birdman hand rub upon learning that some 10,000 mostly Haitian migrants have found refuge under a border bridge in South Texas awaiting processing? The countdown has already begun as to how long before this is all the Biden administration’s fault.
According to the Hill, the massive influx of migrants caused the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) to send additional agents to try and help with what can officially be considered a crisis.
“Border Patrol is increasing its manpower in the Del Rio Sector and coordinating efforts” within the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) “and other relevant federal, state and local partners to immediately address the current level of migrant encounters and to facilitate a safe, humane and orderly process,” CBP said in a statement to the Hill.
“To prevent injuries from heat-related illness, the shaded area underneath Del Rio International Bridge is serving as a temporary staging site while migrants wait to be taken into USBP custody,” the agency added.
Here is how the Washington Post notes how they got there:
They have trekked through the jungles of Panama’s Darien Gap, navigated migrant camps and criminal gangs in Central America, and dodged border guards and troops along the highways of southern Mexico. Some say the economic toll of the pandemic pushed them to leave, while others see a more welcoming U.S. administration offering them a fleeting opportunity to reach the United States.
CBP noted that drinking water, towels and portable toilets for migrants have been posted up near the area for migrants to use as they await processing.
“We’re scrambling to bring every resource we can, but it’s a logistical nightmare,” Jon Anfinsen, the top Border Patrol union official in the Del Rio Sector, told the Washington Post.
“We’re pulling agents from across the country to help, but they’re not going to be there today, and we’re just trying to keep heads above water,” he added.
CBP noted that more than 29,000 Haitians have shown up along the Texas border in the past 11 months “including mixed-nationality families who have had children born in South American countries like Brazil or Chile.”
Surely, Republicans are asking, rightfully, where is the president concerning all this?
“This morning we started at 8,200,” Del Rio Mayor Bruno Lozano (D) tweeted Thursday evening. “President Biden, have you been briefed on the ongoing crisis yet?”
But that’s normal in a crisis. It’s not as if they are blaming the Biden administration for the massive influx of migrants.
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Of course, Fat Eddie Munster had to use the crisis as a video opp because he’s nothing if not obvious. But the Biden administration has allowed Republicans to push them to the point of callousness; who can forget Vice President Kamala Harris’ “Do not come” missive to migrants seeking a better life?
“The administration has said that it will continue to expel migrants under the coronavirus era-Title 42 of the public health code, though human rights advocates have criticized officials for resuming repatriation flights to Haiti amid the country’s ongoing political, economic and environmental disasters,” the Hill reports.
But somehow, no matter what happens, Republicans will claim that they should’ve built a wall and that their lives would’ve been better with the orange man in office.