Twenty-five Republican governors, led by Greg Gianforte, R-Mont., condemned President Joe Biden Tuesday for his persistent inaction at the southern border and his incentivizing of illegal immigration. The governors are demanding transparency on the impacts of the border crisis, including where the government is relocating illegal aliens within the U.S. and how the federal government is processing their asylum applications.
The governors wrote a letter to Biden stating:
As a result of your policies which incentivize illegal immigration, our states are carrying the burden of both the years-long surge in illegal border crossings and cartels’ coordinated trafficking of drugs and human beings. States are on the front lines, working around-the-clock responding to the effects of this crisis: shelters are full, food pantries empty, law enforcement strained, and aid workers exhausted.
The letter presented concerns about the administration’s lack of accountability for the border. The governors highlighted the 5.8 million illegal aliens apprehended at the southern border since Biden’s term began, plus an estimated 1.6 million who have evaded apprehension. Among those apprehended, 244 were on the terrorist watchlist, and even more have evaded capture and now move freely about the U.S., according to the letter.
The governors expressed their concerns for their state economies, which now bear the burden of providing financial, educational, and medical support to the aliens, the costs of which are subject to record levels of inflation under Biden’s economic policies:
As governors, we call on you and your administration to relay immediately accurate, detailed, thorough data and information to the states about who is crossing the southern border illegally, where they are relocating, how the federal government is processing their asylum applications, and whether they are being deported successfully. Without such information, we cannot fulfill our fundamental duties to protect our citizens while providing our communities with appropriate services.
The letter continued:
This is not a partisan issue. Democrat New York City Mayor Eric Adams stated, ‘This is not a New York City problem. This is a national problem. … [Funding for the influx of migrants to New York City is] going to come from our schools’ services. It’s going to come from our streets. It’s going to come from what we provide to children.’ Our fellow governor, Democrat Maura Healey of Massachusetts, declared a state of emergency due to the number of migrants in her state and described the federal government’s mismanagement of immigration as ‘a federal crisis of inaction.’
Despite these statements and actions from Adams and Healey, not a single Democratic governor co-signed the letter.
The governors noted that they cannot afford to respond to the demands the crisis places on their states while the federal government turns a blind eye, considering analysts from the Federation for American Immigration Reform have estimated the annual net cost of illegal immigration is at least $150.7 billion.
The Daily Signal previously reported that some congressional Republicans said they wouldn’t support any spending bill that funds the Department of Homeland Security without action being taken to secure the border.
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