President Joe Biden's rhetoric both before and after he took office, as well as his first-day policies after he was sworn in, are what is driving the current crisis at the nation's border with Mexico, Sen. Marco Rubio said Wednesday.
"The message was pretty clear and that is that both as a candidate and in the early days in office during the transition period it is going to be easier and more welcoming for people to come into the United States even if they do so illegally," the Florida Republican said on Fox Business's "Mornings With Maria." "That message went out loud and clear."
He also warned that the situation at the border is going to continue to get worse, and slammed the Biden administration for its "hypocrisy."
"The same people who demanded access to the facilities, who called it children in cages, who were hosting vigils and protests, now they’re sort of silent about it,” Rubio said.
He added that the Biden administration had decided when coming into office that whatever former President Donald Trump "is for, we're going to reverse it. We're going to be against it without even looking at whether it makes common sense and the result is almost immediate."
However, the answer to the problems will be to go back to Trump's policies, even if it is politically "untenable for them," said Rubio. "They're in a trap of their own making."
His comments come as Biden plans to meet with immigration advisers and his top Cabinet officials Wednesday, and White House officials are being sent to a resettlement facility as pressure grows from both Democrats and Republicans about the growing number of immigrants arriving at the U.S. border in recent weeks.
The White House said in a statement that it also plans to allow limited media coverage of the visit, being made with several congressional members, to the facility in Carrizo Springs, Texas. The media coverage will be the first time the Biden administration has allowed reporters access to the facilities.
Vice President Kamala Harris, who will be part of the meeting at the White House with Biden, told CBS News' "CBS This Morning" that the immigration problem "is not going to be solved overnight."
"There are things that we need to do, especially since there was a system in place previously, before last administration, to allow us to process these kids in their country of origin," Harris said. "That was dismantled. We've (got) to reconstruct it. It's not going to happen overnight. But you know, we have senior administration officials now in Mexico and Guatemala also dealing with in addition what needs to happen at the border."
She added that she and Biden "absolutely" will visit the border soon.
"Our secretary of Homeland Security has been there twice," she said. "The reality also is that in addition to the border we also need to deal with the root causes. We need to deal with what's happening in the northern triangle and address it in a way that is about not only diplomacy but bringing our allies together."
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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