White House Spokesperson Dismisses GOP Border Trip as Publicity Stunt

Biden Claim of Supposed GOP Border Stunt Falls Flat

(LibertySociety.com) – The Biden Administration has faced significant criticism from both sides of the aisle over its handling of the immigration crisis at the southern border. President Joe Biden has visited the border one time in his entire political career, on January 9th, 2023. He stayed for around three hours, visiting El Paso, where it was apparent that they had cleared and cleaned up the area prior to him arriving. Now, a White House spokesperson has labeled the GOP visit to the border as a “partisan publicity stunt” in a statement released on February 16th, 2023.

Spokesperson Ian Sams responded to the trip, which took place last week, saying that House Republicans should be “working on solutions” rather than engaging in “publicity stunts.” He also called on Republicans to join Biden in his efforts to address the crisis.

Republicans have long accused Biden of not doing enough to stem the flow of migrants down south. GOP leaders, including Speaker Kevin McCarthy, have visited the southern border multiple times over the last two years to discuss the issue and demand action from The Biden administration. In May of 2021, during a massive illegal migrant surge, a delegation of GOP Congress members visited the border to construct a plan to demand action from the Biden administration. They also visited again in July of 2022 to draw attention to the fentanyl crisis at the southern border.

In January, when President Biden visited the border, Karine Jean-Pierre, White House press secretary, discounted concerns about the efforts that were undertaken to make it appear as if there was not a problem at the border, labeling it as a coincidence. Many lawmakers were unhappy about the inability to clean things up for residents of El Paso until the President of the United States came to visit. Fox News reached out to the White House to see if they considered President Biden’s visit to be a publicity stunt, but received no response.

This visit to the border from Republicans comes shortly after the Biden administration ordered the removal of most aerostats, which are surveillance balloons that help keep track of the amount of people who illegally cross the border, including the got-a-ways. This action sparked outrage among Republican lawmakers and current and former officials from CBP.

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