This composite image shows President Biden, former President Trump and the southern border. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert and Fox News)
That news came just days after Border Patrol Chief Mike Banks told CBS News in an interview that southern border crossings were down 94% from the same period last year, a staggering number he credited to the Trump administration’s aggressive crackdown.
While Trump has managed to reduce the numbers through his executive authority, many Democrats spent 2024 arguing that the continued crisis at the border was the result of Trump and his allies in the GOP tying the president’s hands by resisting a bipartisan border bill that was working its way through the Senate early in the year and was favored by former President Joe Biden.
"Every day between now and November, the American people are going to know that the only reason the border is not secure is Donald Trump and his MAGA Republican friends," Biden said in February after the bill failed to pass.
"Frankly, I would have preferred to address this issue through bipartisan legislation, because that’s the only way to actually get the kind of system we have now that’s broken, fixed. To hire more Border Patrol agents, more asylum officers, more judges. But, Republicans left me no choice," Biden said in June while announcing new executive actions on border security Republicans argued didn’t go far enough to alleviate the crisis.
That blame game continued throughout the 2024 campaign, with top Democratic leaders piling on Trump for helping kill the legislation they claimed was vital to ending the crisis.
Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris speaks during a campaign rally on Saturday, Nov. 2, 2024, at the PNC Music Pavilion in Charlotte, N.C. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)
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"He killed the bill, a border security bill that would have put 1,500 more agents on the border," she added.
But Ries argued that not only did Trump’s executive actions help alleviate the crisis once he took office, but Democrats had another legislative option all along in border security legislation that had already passed through the Republican-controlled House.
"The Senate could’ve passed HR-2, the Secure the Border Act … the House had already passed it, and it was collecting dust on the Senate’s desk," Ries said.
Michael Lee is a writer for Fox News. Prior to joining Fox News, Michael worked for the Washington Examiner, Bongino.com, and Unbiased America. He has covered politics for more than eight years.
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/dems-trump-killed-immigration-bill-success-border-proves-had-right-idea-expert