First appearance on Fox: Former Border Patrol chief says Republican members of Texas’ congressional delegation never heard from President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris while leading the agency on the front lines of the immigration crisis. In response, he has harshly criticized President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris.
“If they had called Secretary Ortiz, if they had listened to the words of our brave officers on the front lines, they would have heard what every Texan knows: This administration is a border state. He is directly responsible for the chaos and devastation plaguing the entire country,” House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Michael McCaul (R-Texas) told Fox News Digital.
Raul Ortiz served as the head of Customs and Border Protection (CBP) from August 2021 to May 2023, during which time the situation at the southern border first became a particularly thorny issue for the Biden administration. .
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House Republicans are harshly criticizing President Biden after the former Border Patrol chief said he had not heard anything from the president while in office. (Getty Images)
In an interview with CBS’ “60 Minutes” on Sunday, Ortiz accused the Biden administration of “definitely” sending mixed messages to immigrants and spoke about his relationship with Biden and Harris. He said: Either the president or the vice president. ”
“I was the head of the Border Patrol. I commanded 21,000 people. That’s a problem,” he said.
Rep. Randy Weber (R-Texas) said Mr. Biden should have had Mr. Ortiz on “speed dial.”
“It’s common sense — talk to the people who deal with crises every day and wear the boots on the ground. It’s now clear to the American people that Joe Biden and Kamala Harris don’t care at all about the crisis they’ve caused. ‘It’s clear that we’re south of the border,’ Weber told FOX News Digital.
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Former U.S. Border Patrol Chief Raul Ortiz makes accusations in “60 Minutes” interview (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)
The number of illegal border crossings at the southern border has hit a new high compared to the previous year since 2021, when Biden took office as president. The president called for reform of the U.S. immigration system, which he called “broken,” and called on Congress to pass comprehensive legislation.
But Republicans argue that Biden has the power to resolve the border crisis through presidential action and argue that his policies led to the current situation.
Rep. August Pflueger (R-Texas) said the lack of communication with the former Border Patrol chief was “unfortunate but not surprising.”
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Asylum-seeking migrants line up at a makeshift mountain campsite to be processed after crossing the border with Mexico, Friday, February 2, 2024, near Jacumba Hot Springs, California. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull, File)
“This failure shows the Biden administration’s lack of respect for our border security heroes and its lack of seriousness about the national security risks at our southern border,” Pflueger told Fox News Digital. .
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House Small Business Committee Chairman Roger Williams (R-Texas) told Fox News Digital: “This is another example of the Biden administration ignoring the deadly incursions at our southern border and lying to the public. Instead of working with those on the front lines, Biden continues to push for an open borders policy that puts America last.”
Fox News Digital has reached out to the White House for comment on Ortiz’s claims and the resulting House Republican criticism.
