U.S. Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) announced Saturday that she will visit the U.S./Mexico border in Arizona on Sunday alongside Pinal County Sheriff Mark Lamb and Cochise County Sheriff Mark. J. Dannels.
This, according to a press release that members of Blackburn’s staff posted on her website.
“President Joe Biden’s open border agenda has created a crisis at our southern border,” Blackburn said in the press release.
“Now, the Biden administration is censoring what Border Patrol agents can say and hiding the truth from the American people. I am going to the border to get the facts and see the crisis first hand. I appreciate Sheriff Lamb’s strong leadership and commitment to upholding the rule of law. I look forward to joining him in Arizona tomorrow.”
Pinal County is located 60 miles north of the U.S./Mexico Border. Cochise County, meanwhile, is situated along the southern border.
Blackburn emailed a separate press release Saturday. In it, she and other Republican members of the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee slammed what they called “the Biden administration’s self-induced border crisis.” They pressed officials for information about how the administration is responding to the crisis amid the ongoing pandemic.
The Senators are demanding information about the extent of the crisis and the government’s response.
“Regardless of what the Biden Administration wants to call this current set of circumstances it has created, this surge in illegal immigration carries significant risks. It also imposes a heavy burden on public resources. Congress and the American people must have additional clarity about how DHS and HHS are addressing it,” the senators wrote.
In a letter to Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra, the senators highlighted what they called the serious problems with the Biden administration proposals and actions. They said both have encouraged more migrants to make the dangerous journey across Mexico to the southern border.
“Catch-and-release policies pose additional risks to public health in the midst of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. The Biden Administration has expressed a purported commitment to ending the pandemic; however, news reports suggest that it now plans to keep some who are apprehended by DHS personnel in custody for just 72 hours before releasing them into American communities,” the senators said.
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Chris Butler is an investigative journalist at The Tennessee Star. Follow Chris on Facebook. Email tips to [email protected].
I do not care if she visit the border or not. What I want is some clear action to control the illegal invasion.
She is there for the photo opp, not whether anything actually gets done.