Democratic Texas lawmaker claims Biden executive order will not curb immigration crisis

Texas Democratic Rep. Greg Casar on Tuesday rejected President Joe Biden's executive order that bars illegal immigrants from receiving asylum when there is a surge in illegal crossings, claiming it caves to Republican demands.

Biden introduced a new executive order that blamed Republicans from stopping the administration's attempt to secure the United States' southern border, and includes orders that prevent illegal immigrants from receiving asylum when there are high levels of encounters at the Southern Border. It also would allow more than 900,000 illegal immigrants into the U.S. every year, so long as 2,500 people are allowed to cross every day.

Casar said the Republican Party in Congress was to blame for the new executive order, which he claims will not work because it does not fix the underlying issues that drive thousands of migrants to the border each day.

“The Republican Party here in Congress tries to cover up its own failures by scapegoating immigration. It’s the oldest trick in the book and they continue to advocate for closing legal pathways to migration, and pointing at chaos at the border,” Casar told MSNBC. “Unfortunately, it created this political pressure that has the president today responding by restricting asylum, which isn’t going to work because it doesn’t actually reduce the number of people being pushed out of their homes in Latin America."

Casar said Congress or the president should establish legal pathways to citizenship for migrants who were brought over to the U.S. as children. He also claimed the executive action diminishes the country's legacy as a safe haven for persecuted migrants.

“If we want to address what’s going on in our community on immigration, we should finally provide protections to our dreamers and to longtime families here," Casar said. "We need to do what folks in D.C. don’t want to talk about which is how are U.S. policies actually contributing, especially in places like Latin America, to starvation and poverty and violence that is pushing people out of their homes in record numbers?”

Casar added that he is working on legislation himself that would “reduce the amount that the United States is contributing to forced migration," per The Hill. 

“We need a strategy that the American people believe will work, which means one, working in Latin America to reduce forced migration, two having legal pathways so that there’s order at the border and three, protecting the folks here," the Texas Democrat said.

The new executive order will go into effect immediately. 

Misty Severi is an evening news reporter for Just the News. You can follow her on X for more coverage.