President Joe Biden is taking immigration seriously now only because it's affecting his poll numbers, Rep. Anthony D'Esposito told Newsmax Sunday.
"He realizes that in places where he's historically done well in elections, that his numbers are legitimately in the dumpster and as the days pass, that dumpster is about to ignite," the New York Republican said on Newsmax's "Wake Up America."
Biden in his State of the Union address kept referencing the bipartisan border security bill, and he and his fellow Democrats are "trying to their best job" to blame Republicans for not passing the legislation, D'Esposito added.
"I've been told and asked many times, 'Why didn't you vote for that bipartisan border bill that came from the Senate?'" he said. "I didn't vote on it because the Senate can't pass it themselves. I don't look at that as the strongest bill that secures the border. I look at it as actually a surrender to our southern border."
If the Senate Democrats were serious about securing the border, they would have passed the House's border legislation, "which legitimately was the most comprehensive border bill we've seen in a while," said D'Esposito.
"That could have been the starting point," he added. "I'm not saying that bill was perfect, but that would have been the perfect time to begin to compromise, to begin to have conversations."
But now the matter has been made political because of the 2024 elections and Biden's declining numbers, said D'Esposito.
"Hardworking Americans on both sides of the aisle are sick of Joe Biden's Secretary [Alejandro] Mayorkas and the Democrats' failure to secure our southern border," he said.
He also called New York Gov. Kathy Hochul's move to deploy the National Guard to New York City's subways to fight crimes that are increasing as a result of illegal immigration an act of "political theater."
"She reads those polls as well," D'Esposito said. "Criminal justice reform is something that Gov. Hochul has doubled down on. I find it mind-boggling that she was adamantly against the stop, question, and frisk policy that I used when I was a New York City detective and that actually reduced crime."
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