SC’s McMaster joins GOP governors who want Biden meeting on border crisis
Gov. Henry McMaster joined 25 Republican governors Monday asking for a meeting with President Joe Biden to discuss the crisis at the southern border.
The Republican Governor’s Association sent the letter to Biden as thousands migrants seeking asylum waited at the border and as the administration started mass deportation flights to send Haitian migrants back to the Caribbean nation.
“The border is out of sight and out of mind in the Biden Administration and the negative impacts of his reckless open border agenda can no longer be ignored,” McMaster tweeted.
Attacking Biden on his handling of the southern border has been and will likely continue to be a key GOP talking point for Republicans heading into the 2022 midterms as many had been supportive of building a wall between Mexico and the United States during the Trump administration.
McMaster, who is up for reelection in 2022, in April visited South Carolina National Guard members deployed to the southern border.
In their two-page letter, the Republican governors said “the months-long surge in illegal crossings” has led to an international humanitarian crisis and criminal activity, human and drug trafficking.
“More fentanyl has been seized this fiscal year than the last three years combined — almost 10,500 pounds of fentanyl when only 2 milligrams prove fatal,” the letter said. “This is enough to kill seven times the U.S. population.”
Hours after the letter was released, video surfaced showing Border Patrol agents on horseback confronting migrants who were trying to evade law enforcement, according to Reuters. Initial reports described the agents using whips, however, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said the agents were holding long reins to control their horses, not whips, the Associated Press reported.
“I don’t think anyone seeing that footage would think it was acceptable or appropriate,” White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki told reporters Monday.
This story was originally published September 21, 2021 at 5:00 AM.
