By Bethany Blankley (The Center Square)
U.S. Rep. Ronny Jackson, R-Texas, has reintroduced a resolution calling on President Joe Biden to remove Vice President Kamala Harris as the U.S. “border czar.”
Jackson did so after Texas Gov. Greg Abbott appointed a Texas border czar in January, who Abbott says has done more in one day than Harris has done in two years.
The resolution states “Vice President Kamala Harris should be removed from her position as the head of the Biden administration’s strategy to address the root causes of migration.”
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It urges the president to replace her by appointing “an experienced and competent leader” and to “recognize that border security is national security.” It also calls on the president to “immediately provide U.S. Customs and Border Protection with the adequate support and resources to do their job effectively and adequately; immediately reinstate the Migrant Protection Protocols; take action to protect American communities from fentanyl; and stop allowing politics in Washington to cloud their judgment regarding policies implemented at the southern border.”
The resolution points to record numbers of foreign nationals being apprehended at the border, including known and suspected terrorists (KSTs), although it cites outdated CBP data. Over 1.6 million foreign nationals have been reported evading capture or apprehended in fiscal 2023 through February, including nearly 300 KSTs. So far, there have been 69 KSTs apprehended between ports of entry and 38 at ports of entry at the southern border, according to the data. The number of KSTs apprehended at the northern border is significantly higher.
Republican Reps. Dan Meuser of Pennsylvania, Mike Garcia of California, and Brian Babin and Randy Weber of Texas cosponsored the resolution.
At a recent National Border Patrol Council event in Houston, Abbott criticized Biden and Harris, saying that from the beginning of the president’s administration, “the border czar has not been to the border other than a meeting a few miles away from the border in El Paso.”
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Last year, Harris attended a fundraiser for the Texas Democratic Party in Austin and ignored Abbott’s invitation to visit the border. Last September, while in Houston, she twice declared the border was secure in an interview with Face the Nation.
After her remarks, Abbott told The Center Square, “Biden officials have no clue about what’s happening at the border.”
“None of these people in Washington have a clue about what’s going on at the border,” he said. “The Border Czar has said in Texas that the border is secure. The Secretary of Homeland Security said the border is secure. The president’s spokesperson said, ‘people don’t just walk across the border.’”
Instead of waiting on the president to follow the law, Abbott said, he created Texas’ own border security efforts through Operation Lone Star in March 2021, around the same time Harris was appointed border czar.
In January, he appointed 23-year Border Patrol veteran Mike Banks as Texas’ first border czar, saying it was “about time for Texas to have a border czar to lead our efforts to secure the Texas border.”
Abbott said, “Banks on his first day in office spent far more time on the border than Kamala Harris has in her entirety as the border czar of the United States of America.”
Jackson, a former White House physician, has for two years said Biden should be removed from office using the 25th Amendment, citing concerns about his mental and physical health.
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He’s also called for Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas to be impeached for failing to secure the border. After the midterm elections, Jackson told Fox News that Congress would “investigate every decision he’s made. We’re going to use the power of subpoena. We’re going to use the power of the purse and come after Mayorkas. He needs to go.”
Jackson’s first resolution calling on Harris to be removed as border czar was introduced on March 24, 2022. It included multiple Republican cosponsors, including five from Texas: Reps. Brian Babin, Randy Weber, Roger Williams, Pat Fallon, Beth Van Duyne. Other cosponsors represented the states of Alabama, Arizona, California, Florida, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Mississippi, Missouri, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, and Wisconsin.
Syndicated with permission from The Center Square.