Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, on Sunday urged the Biden administration to act “right away” to ease the massive surge at the southern border that's “overwhelmed” Customs and Border Patrol officials.
In an interview on CBS News’ “Face the Nation,” Portman recounted his view of the situation after visiting the border with a number of other elected legislators last week.
There are things that “we can do and should do right away” to ease the surge, he said.
“One is help the Border Patrol, they're overwhelmed,” he said.
“Second, stop the magnet of work by putting a mandatory E-Verify system in place,” Portman added.
“And then third, let's deal with this asylum issue in a much more logical way. Let's have rapid adjudication at the border,” he urged.
“Finally, in terms of the third country agreements that the Biden administration entered right away, let's allow these kids to seek asylum, and families and individuals, in their country of origin, but also in third countries,” Portman suggested.
According to Portman, it’s not unreasonable for the Biden administration to ask for $4 billion over the next four years for Central America to help countries of origin keep their populace within their own borders.
But there has to be a better oversight of the spending, he said.
“Let's face it, we've spent $3.6 billion, so roughly that amount, in the last five years in those three countries in the Northern Triangle alone — El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras,” he said.
“There's a lot of corruption down there. They've also had issues and natural disasters, including the hurricanes. So it hasn't made much of a difference in terms of the poverty rates. It's a little better.”
Portman added “let's begin the process, but let's be sure we do two things.”
“One, let's tie that aid to them helping us in terms of the asylum process and working through this issue that otherwise overwhelms our system,” he continued.
“And second, let's tie the aid to actually dealing with the corruption and make sure that there is transparency, there is an adherence to the rule of law so that we can actually make the fundamental changes in these countries to be able to help those people rather than just sending more money down as we have been doing.”
Related Stories:
© 2025 Newsmax. All rights reserved.