Republicans are taking aim at President Biden for swanning off on a Caribbean family vacation while the crisis at the southern border continues to grow by the day.
The president’s annual trip to St. Croix in the Virgin Islands comes just as a migrant caravan is making its way to the United States coupled with a surge in border crossings.
But Biden’s absence in Washington D.C. this week is emblematic of a perceived absence overall by Republicans that the administration is doing anything at all to solve the critical issue.
Authorities say at least 10,000 migrants a day have been arriving at the U.S.-Mexico border, many of them asylum seekers. A migrant caravan of thousands of people from across the region – largely Venezuelans – has trekked through southern Mexico this week and is getting closer to the U.S.
Biden isn’t the first to face partisan criticism for taking a vacation with former Presidents George W. Bush, Barack Obama, and Donald Trump all enduring scrutiny for time spent away from the capital.
US President Joe Biden waves as he leaves Holy Cross Catholic Church after attending Mass, in Christiansted on St. Croix, in the U.S. Virgin Islands on Saturday
People cross the Rio Grande river to turn themselves in Brownsville, Texas, to authorities to begin their immigration process, as seen from Matamoros, Mexico
US President Joe Biden steps out of a restaurant after dining in Christiansted in Saint Croix
But this time around, the attacks on Biden’s vacation also serve a dual purpose for the GOP who view the border crisis as a potential political advantage for them with 2024 being an election year.
The border has been a headache for Biden for months and his approval ratings continue to plummet with only 38 percent of voters saying they approve of his handling of immigration, compared with 46 percent in November.
Republicans are also looking to gain some political leverage for upcoming negotiations in January over an additional spending package that will look at Ukraine, Israel, and the situation on the border.
‘Joe Biden’s vacationing in the Virgin Islands while the southern border is in crisis,’ said Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) earlier this week.
Rep. Tom Tiffany (R-Wis.) criticized Biden for being ‘on vacation AGAIN while our southern border is being invaded by illegal aliens.’
Attacks on Biden’s vacation also serve a dual purpose for the GOP who view the border crisis as a potential political advantage for them with 2024 being an election year
Migrants from Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador and Honduras have arrived in El Paso in recent days
Migrants standing in line at the US Mexico border wall to surrender to the Border Patrol in El Paso, Texas, on Saturday
The Central and South Americans have been arriving by the hundred in recent days
Migrants in El Paso standing outside a church for food and anyone who would give them a ride
The city of El Paso has been utilizing hotels in the past few weeks to house migrants whenever private nonprofit organizations reach capacity
Barbed wire can be seen through the border wall at Juarez, directly across the border from El Paso, Texas, where they plan to make their entry into the U.S.
The groups headed to El Paso are small compared to the numbers being fielded at southwest border hotspots such as Eagle Pass, Texas, and Lukeville, Arizona
Over the past few weeks, there have been steady surges of migrants arriving at the border in the El Paso/Ciudad Juarez sector
Migrants cross the Rio Bravo on their way to the United States fence in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico
Migrants have been flooding the streets in Ciudad Juarez, hoping to cross to the United States
Honduran Johely, 4, plays with Jennifer, 18, as Johley’s mother Belkys, 32, sits in a tent at a migrant camp in Matamoros, Mexico on Friday
Some 2,000 migrants are seen as part of a caravan that left Mexico’s southern border as the largest of the year, in the city of Mapastepec, state of Chiapas, Mexico
Members of the Mexican National Guard watch over migrants who have abandoned a caravan headed towards the United States
Arizona Representative Andy Biggs (R) echoed this sentiment, stating, ‘Joe Biden is soaking up the sun in the Caribbean while an army of illegal aliens crash our southern border. Don’t be fooled; this is what the radical Left has always wanted.’
Despite the mounting criticism, the White House declined to comment on the matter.
A Biden ally countered the accusations, pointing out how former President Trump frequently played golf during his administration, estimating that Trump had played 261 rounds, according to The Washington Post.
‘The court jesters of the least productive Congress in modern history should probably keep their opinions about the most accomplished president in a generation to themselves — just like they did when their holy savior spent more time golfing than being president,’ the source remarked.
Migrants in New York City are seen being bused to a shelter, after arriving from Texas
Eric Adams, the mayor of New York City, on Wednesday held a joint press conference with the mayors of Chicago and Denver, who are also struggling to deal with the surge in migrant arrivals
Meanwhile, Texas Governor Greg Abbott has defied NYC Mayor Eric Adams demands on when migrants can arrive in the city – with the latest busload set to be dropped off just as the Times Square ball drops on New Years Eve.
Last week Adams issued an executive order that buses could only arrive at Port Authority to drop off migrants between 8:30 a.m. and 12 p.m. from Monday to Friday unless given permission to do otherwise.
Despite this a bus headed to the Big Apple filled with around 50 asylum seekers left El Paso, Texas around 11a.m. on Saturday morning.
The bus, whose passengers include women and children, is scheduled to arrive Sunday night in Gotham, just before midnight, the charter driver told DailyMail.com.
‘We have to be back on the road by midnight,’ he said. ‘Everyone will be celebrating New Year’s, and we’ll be driving back.’
Texas officials would not confirm if they had received permission to leave migrants in New York outside the time decreed by Adams.
When asked about Adams’ executive order, a Venezuelan woman headed to New York on the Texas bus said: ‘We’re not all the same. Maybe some migrants who are already there did things they weren’t supposed to do.
‘We’re going to there to work. We just need a chance’ she added.
The woman, who did not wish to be named but said she was traveling with her 11-year-old daughter, said they entered the US through El Paso on Christmas Day.
They were excited about making New York their final destination after leaving Venezuela nearly two months ago.
‘Work, that’s all we want is work,’ a migrant man standing next to the mom and daughter chimed in.
Migrants are seen being processed in El Paso and put on busses to different destinations, from New York to Denver, Colorado
The migrants in El Paso waited in 30 degree temperatures and were served bananas and water
Thousands of migrants have been coming across the southern border seeking asylum in the US
Migrants seeking asylum gather near the border wall, as they wait to be processed by U.S. Border Patrol in El Paso, Texas, during a day of low temperatures, as seen from Ciudad Juarez
A Border Patrol agent is seen walking past migrants in El Paso on Friday as they wait to be processed
In border towns like El Paso, where migrants showing up to turn themselves in to federal authorities never stop and getting people on a bus to their final destination is crucial to keeping local resources from collapsing.
The migrant shelters in West Texas are full and a vacant middle turned shelter is now housing migrants.
Beleaguered Eagle Pass had over 22,000 migrants show up in their small town in just one week, Border Patrol confirmed.
The town’s population is only 28,000.
‘Texas communities like Eagle Pass and El Paso should not have to shoulder the unprecedented surge of illegal immigration caused by President Biden’s reckless open border policies,’ Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has previously said.
It comes as around 1,300 migrants were making their way through the northern Mexican state of Chihuahua since Christmas Day.
A second huge wave could arrive at the border in several weeks, when a massive caravan, 6,000-8,000 people, currently in southern Mexico, arrives.
El Paso, which spent most of last year as the epicenter of the border crisis, has three larger processing centers that were built in the last 12 months specifically to handle migrant surges at the border.
Although the city is seeing about 1,000 migrant encounters a day – far less than in the current hot spots of Lukeville, Arizona or Eagle Pass, Texas, where ten times that number are crossing – officials here have the ability to quickly ramp up their response if that number peaks.
President Joe Biden, first lady Jill Biden and their granddaughter Natalie arrived in St. Croix on Wednesday for their annual December vacation
The home the Bidens are staying in features colorful decor and has a private beach
As for Joe Biden, he still has a few more days in paradise.
The Bidens have a long family tradition of spending time on St. Croix, visiting there nearly every year since 2008.
Both the president and first lady are known to enjoy beach time. The Bidens own a beach home in Rehoboth, Delaware.
Biden’s brother James owns property on Water Island and, in the past, the Bidens would often spend a week there in January, when the cold weather settles in on the East Coast.
During his time as vice president, Biden vacationed on St Croix in 2014, 2015 and 2016.
Last year he was the first president to visit the island since former President Bill Clinton in the 1990s. Barack Obama visited it in 2007 when he was a presidential candidate.
Before Biden, the last sitting president to visit St Croix was Harry Truman in February 1948.