Florida Republican Rep. Anna Paulina Luna slammed President Joe Biden over the ongoing border crisis on Fox News on Friday, detailing her concerns about the backgrounds of illegal immigrants entering the United States.
Luna appeared on “The Ingraham Angle” to discuss his reaction to a recent viral video about illegal immigrants expressing their concerns about an open border. Host Kayleigh McEnany asked the Florida representative for his thoughts on the issue, as the number of illegal immigrants in the U.S. is estimated to reach a record high of 51.4 million as of February 2024. (Related: Report: After waiting for Border Patrol, frustrated illegal immigrants turn to ride-sharing apps)
“Unfortunately, Kaylee, this is a much worse situation than what this administration is telling the American people,” Luna said. “To put it in context, in April of this year, a terrorist who was allegedly involved and connected to a group that killed nine soldiers in Afghanistan was released into the United States. He was released in Texas, in fact. This is not the first time this has happened. But I believe this administration knows what they’re doing, and quite frankly, it seems as if they want something to happen.”
Luna continued to criticize the Democratic-controlled Senate after the House passed the border security bill, HR2, last year. May But it has stalled since then. Senators tried to pass a bipartisan border bill to address ongoing concerns about the rise in records seen at the southern border, but many Republicans denounced the measure, leading to it being blocked in February.
The Florida representative also blasted Democratic Florida Representative Debbie Wasserman Schultz, who last May argued that Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ push to combat illegal immigration would “devastate” the state’s “economy, tourism, construction and agriculture,” hurting crops, construction sites and restaurant jobs.
“The facts are a lie. In fact, Congress has passed a very strong border security measure that is pending in the Senate. The Senate is controlled by Democrats, and they have said they will not pass the border security measure unless there is mass amnesty. You know, Kaylee, we cannot afford that. Right now, we have over 22 million illegal immigrants in this country. In fact, not only do they not understand that this administration has purposefully tried to frame the illegal immigrants coming here as Hispanic,” Luna continued.
“You have people like Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz saying if we don’t allow illegal immigrants in, who’s going to harvest the crops? And it’s not just Hispanics that are coming here,” she added. “They’re on terrorist watch lists and they want to hurt the American people. The Biden administration is doing this to pander, but it’s going to backfire. That’s exactly why we’re seeing new voters switching from Democrats to Republicans in this year’s election.”
As numbers at the southern border continue to rise, Customs and Border Protection (CBP) data shows that illegal immigrants aren’t just coming from Latin American countries: In fact, a record 27,583 Chinese nationals entered the U.S., according to CBP data for the past seven months of fiscal year 2024.
