The Democratic mayor of Eagle Pass, Texas blamed President Biden and his administration for the unprecedented surge of illegal aliens at the southern border, stating that Eagle Pass has been “abandoned” by the federal government.
Eagle Pass Mayor Rolando Salinas told CNN Thursday that he had declared a state of emergency after more than 5,000 illegal aliens entered the border town from Mexico over a period of just five days. When asked whether he blames President Biden for the crisis, the border town mayor agreed.
“I’ll be honest with you, I believe 100 percent, he does bear some responsibility for this crisis,” Salinas said. “I haven’t heard from anybody in the administration. The president hasn’t put out a statement, the vice president – I haven’t heard from anybody. Nobody has bothered to call me or anyone in the city staff saying, ‘hey, this is the federal government, we’re worried about you, this is our plan of action.'”
“Nothing,” Salinas continued. “We’re here abandoned, we’re on the border, we’re asking for help. This is unacceptable.”
The mayor then pleaded with the Biden Administration to enforce existing immigration law and stated that unfettered illegal immigration is “not fair” to those who come to the country legally.
“Please, just enforce the laws that are on the books. We’re a nation of laws, that’s all I ask for. It shouldn’t be like this,” Salinas said. “We should be able to enforce laws.”
“If you wanna come here, good – come legally. A-lot of people have in the past. It takes a lot of money and years to do it the right way,” he continued. “And it’s not fair to those people that now you have thousands of people coming in without one single consequence. It’s just not fair.”
Eagle Pass, TX Mayor Rolando Salinas: Biden is to blame for the border crisis and no one from his administration has called us as thousands illegally cross into the city. We're here abandoned. pic.twitter.com/xZBMYL8MNe
— Julio Rosas (@Julio_Rosas11) September 21, 2023
In total, there were 232,972 migrant encounters at the southern border in August, according to figures released by U.S. Customs and Border Patrol. This amounted to the highest figure in the calendar year, as well as the highest August on record.