Rep. Jodey Arrington, R-Texas, on Thursday praised Florida for sending law enforcement to the southern border amid the migrant surge and predicted, ''We're going to see more.''
In an interview on Newsmax TV's ''The Chris Salcedo Show,'' Arrington was thrilled that Florida GOP Gov. Ron DeSantis on Wednesday became the first to answer the call for help in the letter from Texas and Arizona governors to the 48 other states requesting additional law enforcement staff to help patrol their states' border with Mexico.
''I like what I'm seeing, and we need to see more of it,'' Arrington told Salcedo.
''We introduced [a resolution] last week, basically, we're saying, 'States: you have sovereign powers to defend your borders and protect your people''' he recounted.
''The states have that inherent right of self defense, so they should be exercising these powers,'' he added. ''So they don't need our legislation. They don't need Congress to act. Their commander in chief has failed to provide for the common defense ... It's time to secure the border, enforce the laws and do that through the powers, constitutionally protected, of our sovereign states. So I think you're going to see more of this.''
Arrington hit hard at Vice President Kamala Harris' role as border czar, charging she ''doesn't want to own'' the crisis at the southern border.
''I'm not surprised that Kamala Harris isn't wanting to have this conversation, nor am I surprised that she is not going to the border,'' he said. ''She doesn't want to own this. She isn't just placating the radical open border left. She is the radical open border left.
''We shouldn't be surprised. We should only be disappointed and embarrassed that Joe Biden has made her the border czar,'' he said.
Arrington also reported that Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen's appearance before the House Ways and Means Committee was ''tough.'' Yellen went before the panel for a grilling on the Biden administration's 2022 budget.
''We questioned Secretary Yellen about the rationale and logic behind the Biden economic policies that are taking us the opposite direction of prosperity and recovery,'' he said.
''We're giving the keys to growth and prosperity to other countries through the numerous policies, starting with paying people to be on unemployment rather than to return to work,'' he added, noting ''about half small businesses can't hire everybody. Many are going to go away and never come back.
''For every American, you've got this assault on oil and gas, which is driving the price at the pump up,'' Arrington argued. ''And now [Democrats] want to put on a big tax hike ... It was a difficult hearing for [Yellen], but it's difficult for every American to understand where they're going with this when we're seeing unemployment go up, inflation go up.''
Arrington warned that the current administration policies could come to resemble ''what happened 10 years leading up to the tax cuts'' passed by the Trump administration.
''None of it makes sense,'' he said. ''And we're all scratching our heads.''
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Fran Beyer ✉
Fran Beyer is a writer with Newsmax and covers national politics.
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