Lawmakers from both parties warned Sunday that the drop in migrant numbers at the U.S. southern border is unlikely to be permanent and called for congressional action to maintain the decline.
Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) and Rep. Tony Gonzales (R-Texas), in two separate interviews with CBS News’ “Face the Nation,” agreed that illegal border crossings have decreased in recent months but poured cold water on the numbers continuing to stay the same.
Asked by “Face the Nation” host Margaret Brennan whether he blamed the Mexican government or Biden administration policies for the decline in migrants crossing the border, Murphy replied, “I think it’s down to smart and effective diplomacy between the U.S. and Mexican governments.”
According to internal government data CBS News obtains Illegal crossings at the southern border last week were down more than 50 percent from a record high in December.
“I don’t know if this is permanent,” Murphy continued, “and so I think we need to recognize that unless we change the laws of our country and put more resources on the border, we can’t expect migration numbers to stay at the same low levels that we’re seeing now.”
Meanwhile, Gonzalez maintained that the decline is not related to President Biden’s actions at the border.
“First of all, this has nothing to do with anything Joe Biden has done. We’re on pace to have 1.3 million people crossing the border illegally. That number is going down. The explanation is Mexico,” he said Sunday. “In a lot of ways, this is just Mexico backstabbing Biden a few times. Joe Biden now wants to secure this problem for the long term, so I think he needs to stop looking to the Senate for a solution and start looking to the House.”
Gonzalez noted that Mexico is due to hold elections next month, and there is an incentive to keep the number of people crossing the border low ahead of the June 2 vote.
For the second time in recent months, the Senate last week rejected a bipartisan border security bill negotiated over the fall and winter by Murphy, Sen. James Lankford (R-Okla.) and Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (Independent-Ariz.).
Murphy said Sunday that he and many of his colleagues were “heartbroken” by the rejected vote.
“And let’s not forget that today, there are about 3,000 people crossing the border every day, which is still higher than it was 10 years ago,” he said. “So a lot of us are just heartbroken.”
“I am tired of Republicans in Congress continuing to vote against bipartisan border security that would give the president the resources and authority to enact permanent reforms and provide an opportunity to permanently control our case numbers,” he added.
Gonzalez suggested Biden needs to have more “conversations” with members of the House of Representatives and not just the Senate, where the border bill was negotiated.
“If we really want to solve this, I think it should start with the House, instead of politicizing it and blaming other people, we should take it to the Senate and say we’re trying, we’re doing our best,” Gonzalez said.
The Hill has reached out to the White House for comment.
Murphy repeated his accusations that Republicans and former President Trump are trying to make the border an issue in the November election, and insisted his party supports bipartisan border security.
“President Trump’s wish [is] “He wants the border to stay messy because he thinks it will be politically advantageous for him. This is as stark a contrast as we’ve ever seen from Democrats on the border issue,” he said. “Democrats support bipartisan border security and Republicans want the border to be messy because it’s good political cause for them. And that’s what the president and every Democrat running for office should be talking about.”
After last week’s vote, Biden slammed Republicans for blocking the bill and argued that Republicans are not interested in securing the U.S. southern border.
“Republicans in Congress don’t care about securing our border or fixing America’s broken immigration system — if they did, they would have voted for the toughest border security in history. Instead, today they are putting partisan politics above our national security,” he said in a statement Thursday.
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