Fox News White House correspondent Peter Doocy pressed White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre Monday on the release of migrants who allegedly rioted at the border and beat Texas National Guardsmen.
Texas Magistrate Judge Humberto Acosta ordered Sunday for the release of migrants who stampeded across the U.S.-Mexico border in El Paso, Texas, in late March. Acosta said the court system was not ready to proceed with detention hearings for each defendant.
“Most of the border crossers accused of beating up Texas National Guardsmen in a riot last month were released on their own recognizance Sunday. How does that make people in this country any safer?” Doocy began during Monday’s press briefing.
“So, I have to refer you to the Department of Justice and DEA office on that particular reporting. I will say this: as the event unfolded, the Border Patrol was able to act quickly and get the situation under control and apprehend the migrants, and we were grateful that the Border Patrol were able to do their job,” Jean-Pierre said. “Look, there is a challenge at the border, right? Our immigration system has been broken for decades … before this president became president more than three years ago.”
The press secretary said “chaos” is happening at the border because former President Donald Trump and Republicans opposed the Emergency National Security Supplemental Appropriations Act, which failed to pass after Senate Republicans blocked the legislation. House Speaker Mike Johnson promised the bill would be “dead on arrival” in his chamber.
The bill would have shut down the border after the average number of entrances surpassed 5,000 people per day. It also intended to provide billions of dollars to Ukraine and millions to Israel.
Footage first published by the New York Post showed a group of more than 300 migrants, most reportedly being from Venezuela, storming the border, cutting down the barrier located at the entrance and apparently rioting into the U.S.
Doocy further asked if Biden supports working on legislation intended to deport more people.
“So does President Biden wish that Republicans in Congress would help him make a law that made it easier to deport people?” Doocy continued.
“What the president wants to see—he wants congressional Republicans to pass, to move forward with a bipartisan border security agreement, [a] bipartisan border security agreement,” Jean-Pierre said. “That was supported by the Border Patrol Union, U.S. Chamber of Commerce, something that we don’t see nowadays and we were able to get that done. But the president wants to see is that being passed. He wants congressional Republicans to not put politics first, to put [the] majority of Americans [who] want us to deal with this issue. That’s what the president wants to see.”
Jean-Pierre previously refused to tell Doocy if the rioters had been deported following the incident. She praised Border Patrol for handling the tumultuous situation and apprehending the migrants. (RELATED: ‘Were They Deported?’: Doocy Presses KJP On Video Of Illegal Immigrants Stampeding Across Border)
She further blamed Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott for the incident and the presence of the overwhelmed Texas National Guard. Abbott placed the state National Guard at the border in an attempt to mitigate the crisis as apprehensions have surged dramatically since President Joe Biden took office.
“And the reason why you’re talking about the Texas National Guard, they were there because of the governor of Texas. The governor of Texas put the Texas National Guard there,” Jean-Pierre said during a March 22 press conference. “We didn’t put them there. He put them there. What we need is actually real solutions. We need to see resources. The Border Patrol agents deserve resources. They deserve to be able to do their jobs, and we’re not getting that from Republicans. They’re rejecting a bipartisan agreement that came out of the Senate.”
Border apprehensions surged once President Joe Biden assumed office and scrapped the “Remain in Mexico” policy and “Title 42” that had been enacted during former President Donald Trump’s administration, according to Customs and Border Protection. The apprehensions surged from over 400,000 during Trump’s final year in office to over 1.7 million in Biden’s first year. These numbers have since exceeded 2 million in the 2022 and 2023 fiscal years.
One migrant released into the U.S. after prior arrests killed 22-year-old nursing student Laken Riley outside of the University of Georgia’s campus. Another allegedly sexually assaulted a 14-year-old girl in Virginia after being released by U.S. Customs and Border Protection.
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