As Biden visits Seattle, MGP says new border security rule 'not good enough'

May 10—With President Joe Biden set to visit Seattle this weekend for a series of election fundraisers, Third Congressional District Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez, D-Washougal, renewed her call for Biden to take additional action on border security.

"Border security must be the top national security priority for President Biden," Gluesenkamp Perez said in a statement Friday morning, joined by Reps. Jared Golden, D-Maine, Mary Peltola D-Arkansas, and Don Davis, D-North Carolina.

The criticism comes a day after the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) unveiled a proposal that would allow the agency to remove some asylum seekers quickly. If adopted, the rule would allow asylum officers to consider potential public safety threats earlier in the screening process, which the department said would allow for the removal of "individuals who pose a threat to the United States much sooner than is currently the case, better safeguarding the security of our border and our country."

According to DHS, the proposal would apply to a small group of migrants, though it will shorten the process for their removal.

"The proposed rule we have published today is yet another step in our ongoing efforts to ensure the safety of the American public by more quickly identifying and removing those individuals who present a security risk and have no legal basis to remain here," Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas said in a statement announcing the proposal. "We will continue to take action, but fundamentally it is only Congress that can fix what everyone agrees is a broken immigration system."

In the statement, DHS called on Congress to "pass needed reforms and provide DHS the resources and tools it needs."

"These proposed changes do not give the Border Patrol the authority it needs to bring order to our Southern border, and the proposed changes will not be enough to stop the drug cartels from trafficking fentanyl over the border and into communities across America," the group of Democratic lawmakers said. "Put simply, the proposal is not good enough, and it is taking far too long for President Biden to take the steps he urgently needs to take to restore operational control of our Southern border."

According to DHS, from May 12, 2023 to May 1, 2024, DHS removed or returned more than 720,000 individuals, "the vast majority of whom crossed the southwest border," and the total number of removals and returns since mid-May 2023 exceeds the "removals and returns in every full fiscal year since 2011."

According to the Associated Press, the Border Patrol made 137,480 arrests of people crossing the southern border in March, a decrease from the 140,638 arrests the agency reported in February. The Associated Press noted that border crossings typically increase during warmer months.

Though Biden isn't scheduled to visit the Third District, the criticism from Gluesenkamp Perez should perhaps come as little surprise.

Last month, she was one of five Democrats who voted for the End the Border Catastrophe Act, a proposal that would have reimplemented the "Remain in Mexico" policy and restarted construction of a wall along the southern border, among other immigration restrictions. The legislation fell short of a two-thirds majority needed to pass.

"President Biden has failed to end the crisis at our southern border, so I voted to do what he refuses to do: secure our border and stop the violent drug cartels pumping fentanyl into our country," Gluesenkamp Perez said in a statement following the vote.

In February, Gluesenkamp Perez introduced bipartisan legislation to enhance security in the U.S. Southern border, reimplement a "remain in Mexico" policy for one year and provide defense-only funding to Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan. A $95 billion foreign aid package later passed without border security measures.

After introducing the Defending Borders, Defending Democracies Act, Glusenkamp Perez said, the "government has an obligation to maintain secure borders and stand up for our allies facing existential threats to their democracies."

As Gluesenkamp Perez enters her first reelection season, border security will likely remain at the forefront of voter concerns. An NBC News poll conducted in April found that 21% of voters said immigration is the top issue in the country, which ranked only behind inflation.

Both Republican challengers running to unseat Gluesenkamp Perez have criticized the Biden Administration's border policy. In a tweet Tuesday, Leslie Lewallen said America "has a crisis at our Southern Border." Joe Kent, who is seeking an electoral rematch in November, said in a Tweet Wednesday that Gluesenkamp Perez voted "to leave the border open" which allowed "millions of illegals into our nation."