10 GOP govs line up at the Rio Grande with National Guard to demand Biden reinstate Trump’s policies

A group of Republican governors convened at the southern border on Wednesday to demand President Joe Biden more directly address the migration crisis – including by finishing the wall.

Texas Governor Greg Abbott, who was flanked by nine other GOP state leaders, said the president has refused to meet with them over this issue and lamented he has still not visited the border the U.S. shares with Mexico.

‘This is one of, if not the most urgent matter that we’re facing,’ Abbott said.

A group of 25 GOP governors sent a letter to Biden 16 days ago demanding a meeting with the president, but have not yet heard back from the White House.

Arizona Governor Doug Ducey said during the press conference on Wednesday: ‘The situation here is certainly outrageous… It’s a tragedy. And I can tell you the border situation is just as out of control in Arizona.’

Abbott, Arizona Governor Doug Ducey, Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds and Nebraska Governor Pete Ricketts all spoke at the press briefing in Texas. Also present were Governors Kevin Stitt of Oklahoma, Mike DeWine of Ohio, Brian Kemp of Georgia, Brad Little of Idaho, Greg Gianforte of Montana and Mark Jordan of Wyoming.

‘There are three people to blame for making America a more dangerous place: President Joe Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris and [Department of Homeland Security] Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas,’ Ducey said. ‘It’s no secret anymore – they have created this crisis, and Americans know it.’

‘This year President Biden took the oath of office,’ he continued, ‘instead of commanding our military, he’s commanded drug cartels and other criminals to wreak havoc on the United States.’

Ducey demanded, ‘it’s time for them to do something about it,’ claiming Biden is either ‘unwilling to solve this crisis, or he doesn’t know how.’

Following the meeting, Kemp posted a video to Twitter taken on his phone in the car where he wrote: ‘Just wrapped up a briefing on the border crisis alongside my fellow governors. One thing is clear – the Biden Administration must act.’ 

The governors laid out things they feel will more aptly address the southern border crisis than what the administration is currently doing, including by restarting the Trump-era Migrant Protection Protocols or the so-called ‘Remain in Mexico’ policy.

They also demanded that Biden enforce Title 42, which is a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention stipulation that allows more ready deportation during a nation-wide health emergency. The Biden administration has said it is using Title 42 to deport illegal immigrants.

Finishing the wall, the group maintained on Wednesday, is still a major priority to stop the mass influx of migrants through the southern border.

Biden’s former Border Security Chief Rodney Scott told Fox News on Tuesday that at one point the U.S. was paying $5 million per day to not continue construction of Trump’s border wall, which the administration halted building on Day 1.

‘Many of those projects today are just still on hold, so we’re paying contractors,’ Scott told Special Report host Bret Baier. ‘For a while, it was almost $5 million a day between DoD [Department of Defense] and DHS [Department of Homeland Security] to not build the border wall.’

Scott also said that he was very forward with Biden that if all Trump-era initiatives to quell migration were stopped, then it would cause a disaster at the southern border.

‘We made it very clear that if we dropped all of the initiatives that have been put in place over the last several years that we would get an influx of mass migration that we would not be able to control,’ he said.