Sen. Pete Ricketts, R-Neb., told Newsmax on Tuesday that Texas must not back down after the Supreme Court granted a request from the Biden administration to allow federal Border Patrol agents to cut or move razor wire installed by the state along a portion of the U.S.-Mexico border.
Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott ordered the razor wire installed near the Rio Grande River at Eagle Pass, Texas, as part of Operation Lone Star, his effort to fight the flood of illegal immigrants into his state. But the Biden administration argued the wire prevents agents from reaching migrants who have crossed into the U.S., and the Supreme Court, in a 5-4 decision Monday, sided with the Biden administration.
"The Biden administration has caused this crisis, and states like Texas are paying the price," Ricketts told "The Chris Salcedo Show." "Texas needs to keep fighting back, and we need to keep pushing this in court until we get a favorable ruling. At the end of the day, we've got to have some of the reforms that we've been talking about in the U.S. Senate, like fixing the asylum program, the parole program.
"This is one where, again, the Biden administration is being sued, but it's going to take us the rest of the year to get through. The Biden administration, Joe Biden himself, has let 1.2 million people into this country last year under the parole program. Under [Barack] Obama and [Donald] Trump, it was an average of about 5,600 people. Now we're up to 10,000 people a day, and the vast majority are being paroled into this country. That's the kind of thing that we've got to stop, and unfortunately, the courts just take too long to get to these things."
Ricketts said he has made four visits to the southern border, twice as a senator and twice as Nebraska's governor. He said Senate Republicans have tried to introduce legislation to help fix the border crisis, but he said the Biden administration is letting the crisis fester by ignoring U.S. immigration laws.
"Joe Biden could end this tomorrow," Ricketts said. "Just the way President Trump did, but he chooses not to. Part of the problem is we have an executive branch that is just completely ignoring the situation and not following our own laws.
"They could end this all tomorrow. They have the tools to end it now, and they have not been doing that."
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