Biden campaign co-chair Veronica Escobar ‘afraid’ Democrats will get blame for border crisis
One of President Biden’s re-election campaign co-chairs has said she worries that growing frustrations over the deteriorating situation at the southern border will hamper Democrats’ prospects in 2024.
“People are really frustrated. They want to see order. They want to see government manage situations,” Rep. Veronica Escobar (D-Texas) told Politico in an interview published Tuesday.
“Unfortunately Democrats are getting the brunt of that right now, and people have brainwashed themselves into thinking that somehow Donald Trump solves this.”
During fiscal year 2023, more than 2.47 million encounters were reported along the Mexico frontier — with more than 240,000 migrants apprehended in October, the most recent month for which stats are available, according to data from US Customs and Border Protection.
That influx has put a strain on liberal states and cities, where border state governors have directed the new arrivals.
“You’re hearing Democrats in places like New York and Illinois sounding the alarm and in some cases sounding more like Republicans — I’m thinking about [New York City] Mayor Eric Adams,” Escobar conceded.
“The fundamental problem is people want an easy fix. This is neither an easy issue, nor is there an easy fix.”
Adams has pressed the Biden administration and the rest of the federal government to address the hundreds of thousands of migrants pouring across the border and ease the strain on the Big Apple’s public resources.
Republicans have long pinned the blame on the White House, citing a litany of policy changes including scrapping the so-called “Remain in Mexico” policy — a Trump-era initiative that required migrants seeking asylum to stay south of the border while their court cases played out.
Escobar, whose House district sits right next to the border and includes much of El Paso, believes Congress is more at fault.
“It is our job,” she told Politico. “We have failed over and over again.”
“I do worry that Democrats will get blamed simply because the president is in the White House,” she added. “I hope not, but I’m afraid of that.”
Last week, Escobar penned an op-ed in her local paper zinging Republicans, claiming they “have refused to collaborate with Democratic colleagues” and ripped their emphasis on border security as a “costly failure.”
She also voiced skepticism about the ongoing negotiations between Senate Republicans and Democrats over a supplemental spending bill.
“There is no domestic issue more challenging for our country today than immigration, and there is no doubt that we must urgently address the issues at the border,” Escobar wrote on X last week.
“The Senate’s secret talks that focus only on the border and not our broken immigration system are short-sighted.”
On Monday, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott signed a bill into law that permits the Lone Star State to arrest illegal immigrants.
Biden has been lagging behind his chief GOP rival, former President Donald Trump in a string of recent polls.
Voters have generally given Biden low marks on immigration. For instance, only 38% of voters approved of his handling of the issue, according to a Harvard CAPS-Harris poll — while Monmouth University recorded just 26% approval of the president on immigration in their own survey.
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