Texas Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick harshly criticised President Joe Biden in an interview with Newsmax on Tuesday, linking a recent violent crime committed by illegal immigrants to the administration’s immigration policies and calling on Trump to directly confront Biden during the upcoming presidential debate.
On Prime News, Patrick spoke about the recent horrific crime in Texas that victimised a 12-year-old girl, Jocelyn. He said:
She was just a 12-year-old cellist out on the street. They asked her for directions, and they allegedly then took her. We have them on camera, took her to a bridge. They tied her hands behind her back. They tied up her ankles. They stripped her… Raped her. And then they strangled her… And then they dumped her in the river like she was just some rag doll.
Patrick stressed the brutality of the crime and its connection to border security. He noted:
If I’m the president, I just bring it down to Thursday night. Because on Thursday… she will be buried on the night of the debate. And I would look to the current president in the eye and say, we’ve had a girl raped in New York. We’ve had a mother of five killed in Maryland, and we’ve had a 12-year-old beautiful little girl tortured to death at the hands of people who are only in this country because of you.
He criticised the current administration’s actions on border security, sharply contrasting them with the policies of former President Donald Trump. Patrick stated:
People of America need to know the horror of the animals that are crossing the border. If 10 million get in 15 million at one percent, that’s 100 to 150,000 vicious criminals that are in this country attacking women and children, raping them, and killing them. And that needs to be front and center. It’s all on Joe Biden.
Patrick also continued:
Does the left have no heart? Does President Biden have no heart? Do they have no shame? Are they so cowered by the leftists and George Soros that they just allow this chaos to continue and see people die and have no empathy, sympathy, or concern for the parents or for this little girl? It makes me sick.
He also addressed liberal media stories about immigrant crime rates, excusing these people by claiming they commit crimes with less frequency than Americans. Patrick said:
Whenever they say that, it really infuriates me, he said. And, you know, one of the biggest judases on the planet is Michael Steele, the former chair of the RNC, who literally said on MSNBC this week, well, that was just speaking of Jocelyn. That was just one out of 11 million, just one. How about if that one is your daughter, your granddaughter, or your friend’s daughter, just one?
Discussing the situation in Texas, Patrick emphasised the effectiveness of action at the state level:
We had 3 to 4000 people a day crossing illegally because of Biden’s policies… In December, we went in there with our barbed wire… National Guard troops… state police, and now it’s less than ten people a day.
Patrick concluded by underlining the need for stronger action on the part of the federal government:
President Trump in his last term… finally… had that border secure. We did not have criminals with ankle bracelets raping little girls… So, the Trump administration knows how to fix the border. The Biden administration has blood on its hands. I’d take it to Biden Thursday night, and I would shame him.
Kennedy calls for tougher immigrant policies
Meanwhile, independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. told America’s sheriffs that if he wins the presidential election, he would enact tougher Trump-style border policies to curb illegal immigration and ease pressure on asylum courts.
Speaking on Monday at the annual convention of the National Sheriffs’ Association, Kennedy lambasted President Joe Biden’s open borders programme and said it was time to bring back many of the border-closing measures that former President Donald Trump used.
For example, he said a border wall should be built, 2,600 more agents should be hired, 300 immigration judges should be stationed at the border and the “Stay in Mexico” policy should be reinstated. Kennedy said:
I’m going to seal the border.
“It’s easily solvable,” added Kennedy, who did not qualify for Thursday’s presidential debate.
Kennedy, who has visited the border with sheriffs, said fences are needed in rural areas of Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and California, but the country doesn’t need to fence the entire 2,200-mile border. He said “you need a fence, you need barriers” in places that migrants routinely cross.
Reviving Trump’s “Stay in Mexico” plan
The candidate also said the Border Patrol should hire thousands more people to replace those who quit during Biden’s tenure. He said more judges should help reduce years-long waiting periods for immigration hearings and asylum applications.
Advocating for a closed border, Kennedy said he supports “legal” immigration and that pathways to US citizenship should be made easier. America needs more labourers, he said, and immigrants could fill that void.
Part of that policy, he said, should include reinstating Trump’s “Stay in Mexico” plan, which prevents migrants from entering the US until their asylum requests are granted.
He also vaguely said that policy decoys offered by Biden, such as the administration’s “catch and release” programme, which opened the door to millions of illegal immigrants first appearing at border crossings, should be scrapped. Kennedy told the Oklahoma convention:
No nation can survive with an open border. I strongly believe that we should have a humane immigration policy that reflects the compassion of our country and the values of our country and the fact that we are all immigrants. But it has to be legal immigration.
