The immigration situation at the southern border has gone from being a crisis to a disaster to what House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy now calls a “human heartbreak.”
Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said they’re seeing the highest number of border crossings in decades.
"We are on pace to encounter more individuals on the southwest border than we have in the last 20 years," he said, adding that spikes at the border are “not new.”
Over the weekend, he announced in a statement that the Federal Emergency Management Agency would be deployed to help deal with the influx.
Republicans have charged that Biden’s policies, including ending former President Trump’s ‘wait-in-Mexico’ policy for those seeking asylum, ending construction of the border wall, and reinstating ‘catch-and-release’ have contributed to the surge. Additionally, Biden's immigration bill, which would offer temporary legal status and a pathway to citizenship, has encouraged other migrants to make the dangerous trek.
But despite the crisis, Biden said he has no plans “at the moment” to see the situation firsthand.
Reporter: "Do you have any plans to travel to the southern border?"
— The Hill (@thehill) March 16, 2021
President Biden: "Not at the moment." pic.twitter.com/Sw5oIj5vKf
McCarthy, who was in McAllen, Texas, on Monday with other Republican lawmakers urged the president to come to the border.
"He needs to come to this border, look what has happened, at what he's created, and change it," the minority leader told Fox News. It's worse than a crisis. I thought I would see a crisis, but this is really a human heartbreak."