Around an hour and 15 minutes into U.S. President Joe Biden’s first State of the Union speech Tuesday, two Republican Congresswomen can be seen chanting “build the wall,” as Biden discussed immigration.
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) and Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO) can be seen in the crowd chanting and clapping. Presumably, they were referring to former Republican President Donald Trump’s plans to build a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border.
Biden halted border wall construction around one year ago, according to The Washington Post. Trump obtained roughly $15 billion for the wall project, including $2.2 billion in unused funds the Biden administration intends to return to the Pentagon.
By the time Trump left office in 2020, 458 miles of the border wall project had been built, according to final figures compiled by U.S. Customs and Border Protection and provided to U.S. News & World Report. It consists mostly of 18-to-30-foot steel bollards anchored in concrete, said the outlet.
“Folks, if we are to advance liberty and justice, we need to secure our border and fix the immigration system,” said Biden Tuesday before Boebert and Greene started chanting. They kept going as he continued his speech, but could not get many to join.
WATCH:
“And as you might guess, I think we can do both,” said Biden after a short pause. “At our border, we’ve installed new technology, like cutting-edge scanners, to better detect drug smuggling.”
According to the president, the Biden administration has also set up joint patrols with Mexico and Guatemala to catch more human traffickers, is planning to put in place dedicated immigration judges, and is securing commitments and supporting partners in South and Central America to host more refugees.
“We can do all this while keeping lit the torch of liberty that has led the generation of immigrants to this land – my forebearers and many of yours,” Biden said. “Provide a pathway to citizenship for Dreamers…those with temporary status, farmworkers, essential workers. To revise our laws so businesses have workers they need and families don’t wait decades to reunite.”
He said these measures are “not only the right thing to do,” but the “economically smart thing to do,” and are widely supported.
After Biden’s speech, Greene criticized his administration’s approach to immigration.
“In just over a year of Joe Biden's presidency, we have a wide open border where border patrol and I.C.E. have their hands tied behind their backs,” she said, according to Fox 5.
Just this weekend, Greene received backlash from other Republicans after speaking at a rally organized by a white nationalist where the crowd chanted “Putin!”
Russian President Vladimir Putin has ordered an ongoing invasion into Ukraine, a sovereign nation. So far, the estimated civilian death toll of the attack has exceeded 100 people and it includes children.
Before Biden finished his speech, while he was alluding to the death of his son – Iraq war veteran and Bronze Star recipient Major Beau Biden, who died from brain cancer at age 46 in 2015 – Boebert decided to make another comment.
“I’ve been in and out of Iraq and Afghanistan over 40 times,” said Biden referring to burn pits in those countries. “These burn pits that incinerate waste – the wastes of war, medical and hazardous material, jet fuel, and so much more.”
“And they come home – many of the world’s fittest and best trained warriors in the world – never the same: headaches, numbness, dizziness, a cancer that would put them in a flag-draped coffin,” he continued. “I know.”
“You put them in,” said Boebert. “Thirteen of them.”
She was referring to 13 service members who died this August as the U.S. pulled out of around two decades of occupation in Afghanistan.
Boebert’s comments drew boos from Democrat lawmakers present at the address.
“I don’t know for sure if the burn pit that he lived near – that [Beau's] hooch was near in Iraq and, earlier than that, in Kosovo is the cause of his brain cancer and the disease of so many other troops,” Biden continued after Boebert cut in. “But I’m committed to find out everything we can.”
Related
Related
