By Corinne Murdock |
Congressional candidate Kirsten Engel has kept quiet on the ongoing conflict over the border crisis and accountability for Biden administration leadership.
Engel hasn’t addressed the recent actions on the $118 billion border bill, nor did she respond to an AZ Free News inquiry concerning the attempted impeachment of Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.
Following the House rejection of a motion to impeach Mayorkas, Senate Republicans blocked the border bill from advancing on Wednesday. House GOP leadership say that they will make another attempt at impeaching Mayorkas.
As reported earlier this week, a majority of the funding in the bill goes to Ukraine: $60 billion, compared to $20 billion for the border. The remainder of the funds were apportioned for humanitarian aid, overseas projects, the Indo-Pacific, and the Red Sea conflict.
This week, Engel opted to issue public remarks only on her attendance at an annual Democratic dinner.
During her last run in 2022, Engel sided with a more lenient approach to border security that included the end of Title 42 and rejection of the characterization of the state of the border as a crisis.
It appears that Engel’s campaign has remained similar on the issues this time around. Her approach to the border crisis includes the Biden administration mantra of “secure, fair, orderly, and humane” with a focus on increasing pathways to citizenship, and ignores the illegal migration outside the legal ports of entry, rather focusing on increasing resources at those legal ports of entry.
In December, Engel told voters that border security efforts should be focused on legal ports of entry to mitigate drug and human trafficking.
Engel last addressed the border bill, indirectly, last month. She leveled criticism against her opponent for supporting House GOP leadership’s stance that the border bill wasn’t a valid solution to the ongoing crisis.
“This is further proof that Republicans want to play politics with this issue, rather than solve it,” said Engel.
Engel also blamed Republicans in December for the ever-worsening border crisis, and the then-shutdown of the Lukeville Port of Entry. The closure was roundly condemned by both Democratic and Republican leadership. The Biden administration shuttered the port to reassign agents elsewhere along the border to process illegal immigrants.
“The situation at the border is getting worse by the day. One port of entry has already been shut down, tens of thousands of asylum-seekers have nowhere to go, and our border communities have been left to deal with the situation on their own,” said Engel. “People are tired of dysfunction in Congress and they know who to blame: Juan Ciscomani and Congressional Republicans.”
In September, Engel expressed frustration that illegal immigrants were deposited into communities due to full processing facilities, calling the practice “callous” and “dangerous.” Engel blamed Washington lawmakers for the nonstop inundation of illegal immigrants.
“This type of callous treatment by CBE of our border communities and migrants is as alarming as it is dangerous,” said Engel. “We’re reminded nearly everyday of just how badly Washington has failed us at the border.”
Corinne Murdock is a reporter for AZ Free News. Follow her latest on Twitter, or email tips to corinne@azfreenews.com.
