WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 31st October, 2022) The Biden administration is not the only one to blame on any issues related to immigration because US Congress has failed to act and must now address the problem, Texas state representative Mary Gonzalez told Sputnik.
Immigration is one of several hot issues on the table when US voters head to the voting booths on November 8 for the midterm elections, with control of US Congress up-for-grabs.
"I think people always look at the administration for all the solutions," Gonzalez, a Democrat, said. "Congress hasn't acted to change immigration policy. We know it's not working. It hasn't been working for decades and yet nothing's changed. That's really a congressional conversation."
Some 2.3 million migrants have entered the United States illegally via the US southern border since October 2021, according to US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) data. This sets a second-consecutive year the Biden administration has witnessed record breaking numbers on the southern border.
Gonzalez said the history of US immigration is an ebb and flow situation.
"Sometimes you have high numbers, sometimes you have low numbers, and this moment in time, we have some high numbers from Venezuela, but that's not unique to America's history as a whole," Gonzalez said.
The southern states of the United States, particularly those bordering Mexico, have been protesting what they call the Biden administration's lax immigration policy by relocating migrants to so-called "sanctuary" states.
The influx has severely strained local, state and Federal resources on the southern border that are trying to handle the situation.
Thirty-five of the 100 seats in the US Senate and all 435 House seats are up for election this year, in addition to state and local positions. The Democrats currently control the House of Representatives by eight seats while the Senate is split 50-50 with Vice President Kamala Harris representing the tie-breaking vote in her role as president of the upper chamber.
According to the averages of surveys gathered by poll aggregator RealClearPolitics (RCP), Republicans are likely to win 225 House seats, well over the 218 needed to win the majority. House Democrats are likely to win 173 seats while 37 are in the toss-up category, according to the RCP data. If the Senate races ended today, the Republicans would likely end up with at least 48 seats to the Democrats 46, with six still too close to call, the data shows.
