Sen. Chris Murphy and Rep. Tony Gonzales both said Sunday that the current decline in migrants at the southern border is unlikely to be permanent — and urged congressional action at the border.
The Democratic senator from Connecticut and the Republican House member representing a Texas border district both acknowledged a recent decline in migrant numbers but said legislation is needed to make that permanent during interviews with Margaret Brennan on CBS’ ‘Face the Nation’. According to Statistics Netherlands, the number of migrants crossing the border has fallen by 54 percent compared to the record level.
“I don’t know if it’s permanent. And so I think we just have to recognize that without updating the laws of this country, without sending more resources to the border, we can’t count on the numbers staying as low as they are right now,” Murphy said. “And remember: today, about 3,000 people cross the border every day. That is still a high number compared to what we saw ten years ago.”
Gonzales, who faces a primary against a far-right challenger on Tuesday, said he doesn’t believe the decline has to do with anything President Joe Biden has done: “This is just Mexico carrying Biden for a few laps. If Joe Biden wants to secure this thing in the long run, I think he should stop looking to the Senate for a solution and start looking to the House of Representatives.”
The two both pointed to the Mexican government as part of the decline: Gonzales noted the June 2 Mexican elections, while Murphy pointed to smart diplomacy between the U.S. and Mexican governments.
“I think the only thing that can bring order to the southwest border is bipartisan legislation. We have a bipartisan border bill, if Republicans decided to support it, it would pass and we could get it to the president’s desk,” Murphy said. to Donald Trump and the Republicans if they want to solve the problem or keep the border a mess because it helps them politically in the coming elections.”
Murphy was the leading Democrat on a bipartisan border deal in the Senate that was rejected after Trump urged Republicans to vote against the legislation. Gonzales, who supports the House-led HR2 bill, also urged the president to work with the Republican-led House on border legislation, not just the Democratic-led Senate.
“The president has not had real conversations with anyone in the House of Representatives. The Senate, yes, they have sat down and had these conversations,” Gonzales said. ‘But in the House they have not given it any oxygen. This is a different conference than in recent years. The House is where I think you start.’