OAN Geraldyn Berry
5:17 PM PT – Thursday, February 16, 2023
For the first visit since the GOP seized control of the lower chamber earlier this year, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy led a group of Republican members to the southern border on Thursday.
McCarthy had led a three-person delegation to the Texas border region in November and April of 2022, as well as in 2021, while he was the House Republican leader.
Those who joined the House Speaker (R-Calif.) were Reps. Lori Chavez-DeRemer (R-Ore.) Derrick Van Orden (R-Wisc.) Jen Kiggans (R-Va.) and Juan Ciscomani (R-Ariz.).
A press conference was held at a ranch in Cochise County, Arizona where the Republican spoke about improvements to be implemented for a better border security.
“We’ve got a lot of ideas inside Congress, which was different than the Congress before. We’re not just going to write the bill and put it onto the floor. We’re going to listen to the people that are on the border,” he said.
The measures were condemned by opponents, including some immigration advocates and House Democrats.
Director of Communications for Immigration Advocacy group America’s Voice Douglas Rivlin, a former Democratic congressional staffer, referred to the Speaker’s move as just “yet another photo op.”
“So instead of actually legislating, the speaker is doing yet another border photo op to send a message to his MAGA critics that he’s opposed to immigration as much as they are and get himself on Fox News,” said Rivlin. “Nativism has become the heart of MAGA Republicanism and the speaker and the Republican Party are in their grips.”
United States Customs and Border Protection had provided the group a briefing and an aerial tour of the Tucson Sector, which spanned 262 border miles and included the majority of Arizona from the New Mexico State line to the Yuma County line.
McCarthy has criticized the Biden administration’s policies in the past. Republican had also demanded the resignation of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas during his midterm campaign last year, citing that Mayorkas actions have “produced the greatest wave of illegal immigration in recorded history.”