With the border crisis in complete turmoil, Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont (D-Conn.) said he offered his help to President Joe Biden in getting it under control.
However, the governor said the president dismissed his help.
During a segment on Friday’s CNBC’s “Squawk Box,” Lamont claimed he offered Biden the Connecticut Guard to help secure the U.S.-Mexico border but said the president declined to use them.
“You may need housing for a different reason: immigration. You have people being bused up there — not in the same way that is being — that’s happening here — what do you think of the immigration problem in America, and do you think that blue states, which, for so long, thought this was a not in my backyard issue, now it is?” Host Andrew Ross Sorkin asked.
“It’s in all of our backyards. Gov. [Phil] Scott (R) from Vermont and myself just wrote a letter together, two states that you don’t think are on the frontlines of immigration, it’s hitting us. I see what it’s doing to the country. They’ve got to secure the border. I tell President Biden, we’ll send the Connecticut Guard down to help you if that’s what you need to get it done,” Lamont responded.
The Democrat governor suggested Biden makes excuses for why he can’t shut the border down.
In recent months, Connecticut has seen a rise in illegal migrants as they seek asylum. According to the state Department of Social Services, the state has seen approximately 500 Haitians and Cubans arrive in the last year.
Lamont stressed that both political parties need to get a bipartisan deal on the table so that the southern border can be secured once and for all. He said that the bill needs to be drawn up as soon as possible and not be put off anymore, adding that Biden’s border crisis is affecting every U.S. state.
When asked where he stands on Biden running for a second term, Lamont danced around the question, refusing to answer directly. Instead, he turned his focus on his state’s infrastructure needs.