The situation at the nation's border under President Joe Biden is worse than a crisis — it's a "full-blown disaster that they've created," Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick said Wednesday.
"What they need to do is close the border," the Republican state leader told Fox News' "America's Newsroom." "It is wide open. I've been working on the border for nearly 16 years. A lot of trips and all over the border, day and night patrols, you name it. This is the worst I've seen. ... It is an absolute disaster and President Biden is nothing more than a prop of the left. He has no idea what's going on down there."
Not only that, but there is "no end in sight to these people coming over the border," said Patrick. "We are talking about millions of people who are being victimized by the Biden administration."
The Texas National Guard has said it will send 500 troops to help with the surge, and they'll be added to the troops already there and to the nearly 1,000 Texas State Troopers on duty, said Patrick.
"The state of Texas has spent almost a billion dollars in every budget since I got elected in 2015 with [Gov.] Greg Abbott because the federal government is not doing its job," said Patrick. "We were able to relax because under the Trump administration, he actually did his job and we were in good shape on the border before Biden got elected. We were in good shape."
He also claimed that Border Patrol agents have not been vaccinated against COVID-19, but the state of Texas is vaccinating its own people who are on border duty, as they are susceptible to the disease.
White House chief of staff Ron Klain has said that the Biden administration "inherited a real mess" from the Trump administration on the border, and is "committed to a policy that follows the rule of law and that is humane."
Patrick said he is "just calling B.S. on that."
"They must have legalized marijuana in the White House and they're all smoking it," Patrick said "These people are clueless. They have no idea. Let me give you a practical reality of this whether it's in a town near you or Texas. What do you do with this 14 or 15-year-old kid who comes across the border illegally, sent to some city, put in a school system, two or three grade levels behind at best. You can't put a 15-year-old in a fourth-grade class. What do we do with them? They drop out because their self-esteem is low. They can't keep up. They either get a low working job for the rest of their life because they have no education or they worst-case join a gang because that's who recruits them."
Instead, he said, the nation needs a legal immigration system that is "truly humane."
"I just don't understand this," he added. "What does the Biden administration think they're doing? Where is the limit? It probably will be at this pace somewhere 10 million or 12 million just this year. We've apprehended over 100,000, we don't know the exact numbers. Three are coming in for every one we catch."
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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