Republicans fume at Biden for vacationing as border crossings explode: ‘Dereliction of duty’

Republican lawmakers are criticizing President Biden for vacationing in the Caribbean with his family while the crisis at the southern border threatens to spiral out of control. 

Biden is ringing in the New Year on St. Croix in the U.S. Virgin Islands. He arrived Wednesday as strained discussions over how to handle the record number of illegal immigrants crossing the border continue in Washington.

Border towns and sanctuary cities like New York City are seeing their infrastructures buckle under the surge of people. Sources told Fox News there have been more than 276,000 migrant encounters in December so far, already making it the highest month on record.

“President Biden’s entire presidency has been a vacation from reality — 760,000 illegal immigrants have been encountered at the border since October,” Rep. Gary Palmer, R-Ala., chairman of the House GOP Policy Committee, told Fox News Digital.

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“This is intentional and tells the American people everything they need to know. President Biden has no desire to stop it. He will continue to vacation while the border burns because this is the outcome he wants.

“President Biden’s dereliction of duty is on full display while he sits on the beach and ignores the thousands of illegal immigrants invading our country daily,” Rep. Randy Weber, R-Texas, told Fox News Digital. “America as we know it will be unrecognizable unless this administration comes to the table, starts enforcing the laws and stops the flow of illegal immigrants.”

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Rep. Mark Alford, R-Texas, said Biden and his officials “should be ashamed” at the state of the U.S. migrant crisis.

“Every month, we continue to see record-breaking encounters at our southern border. Instead of pursuing solutions, Joe Biden is spending time on vacation,” Alford told Fox News Digital. “Mr. President, the world is watching. They see that our borders are in shambles and your administration has zero intention of course correcting.”

Another Texas Republican quipped that Biden “might not see the problem from the beaches” but that it’s always present in the Lone Star state.

“Texans are enduring some of the highest numbers of illegal crossings on record while the White House and Senate Democrats refuse to take action,” Rep. August Pfluger, R-Texas, told Fox News Digital.

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Since the new fiscal year began Oct. 1., there have been more than 760,000 migrant encounters at the southern border, making the first quarter of fiscal 2024 the highest quarter on record. Meanwhile, there have been 82,000 known getaways since Oct. 1. 

It caps a year at the southern border when multiple records have been repeatedly smashed with Border Patrol consistently overwhelmed by the numbers it is seeing.

Republicans have blamed the surge on the policies of the administration, including the ending of Trump-era policies, while the administration says it is dealing with a hemisphere-wide challenge and needs more funding and immigration reform legislation from Congress.

Fox News Digital has reached out to the White House for comment.

Fox News’ Griff Jenkins contributed to this report