During a recent hearing of a subcommittee of the House Committee on Homeland Security, panel member Rep. Robert Garcia (D-Calif.) blasted rhetoric seen from figures like Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) as “un-American.”
During the proceedings, which involved the Subcommittee on Border Security and Enforcement on that broader panel, Garcia was speaking directly after Greene. During her earlier remarks, the Georgia Republican had desperately attempted to cultivate fear and outrage around an app that’s been made available to assist prospective migrants with the process of scheduling their entries to the U.S. It wasn’t true, though Greene suggested otherwise, that access to the app and a successful scheduling would automatically mean acceptance of individuals’ asylum claims.
It also remains frankly untrue that there’s some kind of invasion at the southern border, though Republicans have been using such rhetoric for years now. “I want to remind my colleagues in the majority that attempts to demonize immigrants and people who come here legally to seek asylum is un-American,” Garcia said. “Our country is a nation of immigrants, and we are constantly reinvigorated with immigrants, with their talents and with their innovation. I know that some people here have been openly rooting for a post-Title 42 crisis as a way to score political points, but let’s be very clear. That crisis did not happen, and this hearing is an attempt to manufacture one. As has been stated, Border Patrol encounters are at the lowest point since 2020. That is a fact.”
And yet, asking Republicans about the situation would probably lead to an entirely different impression about recent events. Over on his knock-off social media site Truth Social, Trump has often returned to clamoring about the supposed demise of the U.S. — a frankly ridiculous concept. The United States, its serious problems notwithstanding, is not in ruins, people! Watch Garcia’s commentary below:
