Former Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-Hawaii) is criticizing President Joe Biden’s immigration policies while saying former President Donald Trump’s approach to asylum seekers “worked.”
“The humanitarian and national security crisis on the southern border is the direct result of your open-border policy. As I said in my 2020 presidential campaign, we can’t have a secure nation if we don’t secure our borders,” Gabbard wrote in a tweet on Wednesday.
.@JoeBiden @KamalaHarris, the humanitarian and national security crisis on the southern border is the direct result of your open-border policy. As I said in my 2020 presidential campaign, we can’t have a secure nation if we don't secure our borders.
— Tulsi Gabbard ? (@TulsiGabbard) September 23, 2021
And in a tweet on Thursday, she wrote, “The Biden/Harris open-door policy has been a disaster. It needs to end now. The main beneficiaries of open borders are the gangs, cartels, and human traffickers.”
“The Trump policy of having people wait on the other side of the border worked and needs to be reinstated,” she added.
The Biden/Harris open-door policy has been a disaster. It needs to end now. The main beneficiaries of open borders are the gangs, cartels, and human traffickers. The Trump policy of having people wait on the other side of the border worked and needs to be reinstated.
— Tulsi Gabbard ? (@TulsiGabbard) September 23, 2021
In recent days, thousands of Haitian migrants have crossed the border at Del Rio, Texas, to seek asylum in the U.S. Haiti was thrown into political turmoil earlier this year after gunmen assassinated the island nation’s president. And last month, a 7.2 magnitude earthquake in Haiti left at least 2,200 people dead.
Images have surfaced of thousands of migrants gathering at the Del Rio international bridge as they wait for Border Patrol agents to process them. The number of migrants encamped in the area swelled to 14,000 but has dropped as deportations ramped up.
Meanwhile, one official told The Associated Press that Haitian migrants have been released with notices to appear at an immigration office within 60 days on a “very, very large scale.”
The Biden administration said in August that it would challenge a Supreme Court ruling that blocked its attempt to rescind a Trump-era policy that requires asylum seekers to wait in Mexico while their claims were adjudicated.
While the administration said it would challenge the ruling, Politico notes that officials are “debating restarting what it describes as a more humane version of a controversial Trump-era program for asylum seekers.”
“The new proposal — what some have dubbed ‘Remain in Mexico lite’ — would require a small number of asylum seekers to wait in Mexico for their cases to be processed but give them better living conditions and access to attorneys, according to three people familiar with the discussions,” the outlet noted.
