Arkansas Gov. Gov. Asa Hutchinson laid out a three-pronged plan to deal with the crisis on the southern border, harshly criticizing the Biden administration's approach to the issue in an interview with Newsmax on Wednesday.
The Republican governor told Newsmax's "Wake Up America" that every signal from the Biden administration on the issue "has been wrong, it has been misguided and confusing," emphasizing that the administration "continues the public health emergency when it comes to Medicaid, but wants to end it when it comes to border security."
Hutchinson pointed out that Biden "asks the Supreme Court to end Title 42 ... but the fact is that it is inconsistent with the position the administration has taken on extending the public health emergency when it comes to Medicaid and prohibiting the states from moving people off of Medicaid if they don't meet the income requirements anymore."
The governor, who called the migrant issue a "human tragedy," said that the first step in a three-part plan to deal with the crisis must be "to extend Title 42 through April, which is at least as long as when Medicaid is going to continue on their public health emergency."
That helps provide more time for the administration to deal with the next step, pushing "a border security bill through Congress," Hutchinson said, adding that the third part of his plan is that "we have to engage Mexico to a greater extent. We have to be able to go after the cartel and we need their help to do it."
Hutchinson, who said he will decide by the end of this coming March on whether to run for president or not in 2024, said that another issue he is concentrating on is the sharp rise in violent crime on the nation's streets, which he said "makes me motivated to bring the rule of law back to America... and give us the public safety we deserve as a great country."
He also stressed that there is also a need to address the drug smuggling problem much more aggressively, "because it is killing our young people all across the country."
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