NBC’s Chuck Todd on “Meet the Press” pushed back against Democratic Connecticut Sen. Chris Murphy on Sunday after he blamed Republicans for the border crisis.
Title 42 ended Thursday at midnight, filling migrant processing centers with more than 25,000 migrants within hours, internal agency data obtained by the Daily Caller News Foundation showed. After the end of Title 42, Arizona’s Yuma and Tucson sectors were 219% and 269% over capacity, respectively.
Murphy argued Biden lifted Title 42 so that he would not step outside his authority but added that Biden is “not sitting on his hands like the Republicans would allege.” (RELATED: Republican Rep Schools Mayorkas On Border Crossings)
Murphy then argued that while a lot of people are showing up at the border, it was only because Title 42 had previously prevented single, male adults from applying for asylum, which they are now doing. He added the Biden Administration has been preparing for the end of the policy for two years.
“I understand what you’re saying about the preparation for this moment, but politically, other than introducing a bill on day one, he never talked about it. He didn’t lean his shoulder in, Build Back Better was the focus, everything else was the focus and look, the Republicans have dirtier hands on immigration, but the Democrats don’t have clean hands on this either,” Todd said.
“Republicans have had multiple opportunities to come to the table and pass immigration reform that would fix the problem at the border,” Murphy said. “While you have a small group of Republicans who legitimately want to engage, the majority of that party delights at chaos at the border. You saw some of my colleagues on Tuesday, as soon as votes were done, rushed down to the border to take smiling photographs with the border patrol essentially celebrating the fact that there was chaos because there’s political gain to be had.”
Todd then asked Murphy if he would support reinstituting Title 42.
“I’m not [supportive] because that pushes the problem down the line and that gives you one or two more years of individuals being denied entry.”