The White House said critics find no solution.
House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy and a dozen members of the GOP House have criticized President Joe Biden for what he says has been a slow response to what they call an ongoing humanitarian crisis.
His criticism came after he visited a detention center on the U.S.-Mexico border on Monday.
“It’s more than a crisis. That’s human discouragement,” McCarthy told reporters Monday at a news conference in El Paso, Texas.
McCarthy and his fellow Republicans have seized on Biden’s immigration policies, blaming the administration for a wave of migrants at the border.
Democrats insist McCarthy and his fellow Republicans are blowing the situation out disproportionately.
“I guess their approach to Dr. Seuss didn’t work for them. Now they have to change the subject,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said last week about the Republicans’ renewed focus on the border. Democrats say Republicans want to distract themselves from the popular $ 1.9 trillion COVID-19 aid package that Biden has just signed into law.
Republican Sen. John Cornyn went to the Senate floor Monday to describe his weekend trip to the Carrizo Springs, Texas border facility.
“If no measures are taken to curb the flow of migrants across the border, the Category 5 hurricane will break the whole system,” he said.
White House press secretary Jen Psaki called the situation “groundbreaking” and “unacceptable,” adding, “I think the challenge here is that there are only, not so many options.”
He said the president’s critics “don’t offer many solutions.”
“We want to expedite the departure of these children from these CBP (Customs and Border Protection) facilities as quickly as possible,” he told reporters.
McCarthy, however, dubbed the situation “Biden Border Crisis.”
The Republican leader said the detention center that the group, built a little over a year ago, visited on Monday already exceeds capacity.
“They have to incorporate an makeshift facility into the parking lot,” he said.
McCarthy said GOP House members spoke to a Honduran family who said they had been traveling for at least 22 days.
“Even though the U.S. Congress has just approved a $ 1.9 trillion bill, not $ 1 to help them,” McCarthy said.
McCarthy asked Biden to go down to the border to see the crisis himself.
“I know the president will travel this week. This is where he should take Air Force One,” McCarthy said.
Psaki said he had no ads to share about Biden going to the border, but reiterated that the administration is working “to develop solutions that speed up processing at the border.”
“This will open more facilities, which will ensure that children are treated humanely and that they are also treated safely,” he said.
Trish Turner of ABC News contributed to this report.