Rep. Andy Biggs said Tuesday he backs President Donald Trump's threat to send detained migrants to sanctuary cities as a "commonsense measure" as options are narrowing about what to do with the thousands of people who are flooding the nation's borders.
"We're seeing literally tens of thousands of people being released into this country because the illegal migrants know if they get here and claim asylum," the Arizona Republican told Fox News' "America's Newsroom."
"If Congress doesn't get it together, we're cutting off the options for this president and the executive (branch) about what they can do."
Trump's call to send migrants to sanctuary cities has been slammed by some Republicans, as well as Democrats, but Biggs said the president has been "boxed in."
"It has been the left that has said we can't send people back to Mexico, who said they would hold people until they got asylum," said Biggs. "The left said we can't detain people who are here. The left has formed the sanctuary cities and said welcome in here as an incentive for people to come here illegally."
Places like Phoenix, meanwhile, are overwhelmed, including in the churches and community organizations that work to help the migrants, said Biggs, who is leading a tour of other members of Congress at the border.
"You just can't get the full grasp of the magnitude of the problem if you are seeing it on TV, even," said Biggs. "When I get these folks down to the border, all of a sudden they become evangelizers about how serious it is and now how serious it is."
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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