White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre addressed concerns from Democratic mayors about the administration’s border and asylum policies.
She criticized Republican Governor Abbott for using migrants as a political stunt and emphasized the need for bipartisan action on border security.
The mayors expressed the challenges of managing the influx of migrants, highlighting the strain on local resources. (Trending: Donald Trump Breaks His Silence After Major Court Win)
Jean-Pierre underscored the administration’s efforts to engage in productive conversations with Congress to address the broken immigration system and provide support to affected mayors and governors.
“I want to talk more about the action you’re discussing in the area of immigration and migration. Obviously, this has become a tremendous issue. The mayors of Chicago, Denver, New York collectively calling for federal support to manage the influx of migrants to their areas. I’d like you to hear a little bit about what they had to say,” CNN’s Audie Cornish said.
“An international and federal crisis that local governments are being asked to subsidize, and this is unsustainable,” Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson said.
“When you’re talking about 10 percent of the budget to allocate for cities on this, that’s unsustainable. When we have every single hotel room in the city full of migrants that have arrived, that’s unsustainable,” Denver Mayor Mike Johnston said.
“The federal government said to New York City we’re not going to do our job. You do our job. You take care of 4,000 people a week, Eric,” New York Mayor Eric Adams said.
“So, obviously, there have been many Republican governors and mayors who have talked about this issue. Now you’re hearing it from within the party. What’s the response?” Cornish asked.
“So here’s my response. It is shameful that a Republican governor — Gov. Abbott in Texas — is using migrants as a political stunt. That’s what he’s been doing –” Jean-Pierre said.
“So you’re referring to the busing of migrants to northern cities?” Cornish cut in.
“Absolutely, and the busing of migrants, the putting them on flights. It is shameful that is occurring. And instead of — if the governor really, truly wants to deal with this issue he should talk to other senators in his state and actually ask them to work with us,” Jean-Pierre said.
“Look, what we’re seeing right now is negotiations happening on the Senate side to talk about how do we come up with a bipartisan agreement to deal with border security. There’s a reason why the president put that in his emergency ask, right — in the national security supplemental ask because he thought it was incredibly important.”
“In a couple of weeks, we’re about to hit three years — three years since the president put forward an immigration comprehensive legislation — put that forward to Congress and nothing was done on it. And the reason why he put that first –”
“But in the meantime… I just want to add that the president has done some things in his capacity, right? He has made extra effort to expand border — if not wall, barriers. He has made some changes in policy. Are there more things on the executive side you see as being an option in 2024?” Cornish pressed.
“The president put forth a comprehensive immigration plan because he believed that the system is broken. The immigration system is broken, and it’s been broken for decades,” Jean-Pierre said.
“Now we are having, we believe, a very productive conversation in Congress with senators on how do we move forward in a bipartisan agreement to deal with the border security. That is important. Now, what we hope is that when Congress gets back, we’ll be able to act and get these things moving forward so we can deal with this issue.”
“We’ve been in touch with some of those mayors that you talked about — governors in northern — in the northern part of the country on dealing with the issue that they’re dealing with on the ground. And we have provided resources to them and we’re going to continue to have those conversations.”
“But again, Congress needs to act. The president took this very seriously on day one,” she said.
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