Cruz: Biden Has Power to Secure Border by Reversing His Executive Decisions

WASHINGTON, DC – Prominent Republican senators emphasized Tuesday at a press conference in opposition to the “dead” pro-migration border bill unveiled Sunday that President Joe Biden already has the authority to address the crisis at the Southern border through executive action.

Seven conservative Republican senators – Ted Cruz (R-FL), Ron Johnson (R-WI), Mike Lee (R-UT), Roger Marshall (R-KS), Eric Schmitt (R-MO), Rick Scott (R-FL), and J.D. Vance (R-OH) – stood in solidarity against the bill at Tuesday’s press conference, with each offering remarks on why they are opposed to the legislation.

While speaking to reporters, Cruz contended that Biden caused the “deliberate” crisis at the border with three executive moves during his first week in office and pointed out he could reverse those decisions immediately if he so chose:

He inherited the lowest rate of illegal immigration in 45 years, and in his first week as president, he halted construction on the border wall, he reinstated the disastrous policy of catch and release, and he pulled out of the unbelievably successful Remain in Mexico agreement. That caused this explosion. It also means Joe Biden could solve it tomorrow. How would he solve it tomorrow? By reversing those three decisions and you would get once again a secure border.

Cruz contended that Biden and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) do not “want to secure the border”

“Instead, this bill codified Joe Biden’s open borders. This bill codified catch and release. Catch and release is contrary to law, but if we had passed this bill, catch and release would be right there in the U.S. Code,” Cruz said. “This bill normalized 5000 illegal immigrants a day.”

He noted that translates to 1.8 million migrants annually.

“We’ve seen 9.6 million illegal immigrants under Joe Biden. Apparently, the Republican position was going to be, ‘We don’t like your 9.6 [million], but we’re okay with two-thirds of that illegal immigration.’ That was ridiculous,” he added.

House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) said the bill would be “dead on arrival” in the House of Representatives in the now-unlikely event it even makes it out of the Senate. Cruz argued that “The entire purpose of this bill is to give political camouflage for Democrats running in November” as it has no realistic chance to make it into law:

The objective of this bill was number one: to do nothing, so to do zero to to secure the border, but to let every Democrat running for office ‘Say, gosh, I wanted to secure the border, but those mean Republicans wouldn’t let us.’ This is all about talking points to deceive the voters.

Speaking after Cruz, Marshall echoed the Texas senator’s comments, stating that “Biden could secure the border yesterday,” but “that was never his goal.”

“Joe Biden’s goals are to fund Ukraine, to not fund Israel. He wants to fund Hamas. I think it’s all very obvious what his goals are. Now, he doesn’t want to do anything that might hurt Iran’s feelings. That’s Joe Biden’s goals,” Marshall said.

Vance zoned in on the same sentiment during his remarks.

“The fundamental framing here is Joe Biden has every tool at his disposal to end the border crisis tomorrow,” Vance said.

The Ohio senator further pointed out that Republicans are “trying to force the president to do what he already could do under existing legal authority,” but “nearly every provision of this legislation allows either [Department of Homeland] Secretary [Alejandro] Mayorkas or the president United States to waive the enforcement mechanisms.”

“What we need to do is pass legislation that forces Joe Biden to do his job, restrains his discretion, constrains his discretion, not give him more authority to run… around the laws that we have in this country,” Vance later added. “This bill doesn’t do that. So we can’t support it.”

Schmitt, Cruz, and Marshall all shared they believe the bill is “dead.” Lee told Sirius XM’s Breitbart News Daily earlier Tuesday that it is “increasingly likely” the bill fails to pass the first cloture vote.