[LI] During congressional hearings focused on the Biden border disaster, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas indicated that the Biden administration was considering diverting resources from the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) to help illegal immigrants if and when the Title 42 controls ended.Title 42 expulsions are removals by the U.S. government of persons who have recently been in a country where a communicable disease was present. Biden has slated to end them on May 23.
Republicans are slamming the administration for this proposal.
...{S]everal representatives have sent a letter to Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas about the ’mishandling’ of the border and called the possible usage of VA personnel at the border ’deeply troubling’ as it is already hard for veterans to see doctors.
’Moving VA medical staff away from our veteran’s healthcare needs to examine illegal immigrants is a recipe for disaster,’ the letter, written by Georgia Representative Jody Hice, said. ’Wait times for a veteran to see their doctor can average 22 days and reach as high as 42 days. This is unacceptable mismanagement of federal government resources by the Biden administration.
’Biden’s failed open border policies are no excuse to funnel resources away from our veterans. Our men and women who put their lives on the line to protect our liberties and our country’s sovereignty deserve the best resources for their health care needs.
’The Biden Administration must provide the American people answers. Even the thought of abandoning our veterans’ care for the needs of illegal aliens is disgraceful.’
U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, says he still hasn’t received an answer from Biden on these plans.
In his letter, Cruz urged the president "to secure our Southern border and immediately renew Title 42," a public health authority that’s allowed federal agents to quickly expel illegal immigrants during a public health emergency. The Biden administration announced it was ending it May 23. Unless halted by the courts, border officials say ending Title 42 will result in roughly 18,000 people rushing the southern border a day, overwhelming Border Patrol agents and local law enforcement as a result.
"[T]he Department of Homeland Security has been considering potential strategies for dealing with the anticipated influx of migrants when CBP’s Title 42 authority is revoked," Cruz said in a statement. "Reportedly, one such strategy, according to a source from within CBP, includes diverting VA medical personnel and deploying them to the border. The CBP source went on to say ’[w]e’re going to take medical services away from people ... [w]ho went to combat ... to give free medical attention to illegal migrants.’"
This "is completely unacceptable," Cruz said.
Congresswoman Mary Miller (R-IL) sent a letter yo Biden’s Veterans Affairs Secretary asking if any resources from the VA will be diverted from serving our nation’s veterans to deal with the crisis Biden has created on our southern border.
"We need to ensure that no money that was set aside to help our veterans is being diverted to the southern border," Miller said. "VA resources should be used for our veterans, not to manage President Biden’s self-created crisis at the southern border. Instead of depriving our nation’s heroes of resources, the Biden administration should reinstate the effective border security policies of the Trump administration and complete construction of the border wall."