Texas governor hopeful Beto O’Rourke criticizes Biden on immigration

Nov 21 (Reuters) – Beto O’Rourke, the Democratic former U.S. congressman who’s working for governor of Texas, on Sunday criticized President Joe Biden for a scarcity of urgency on pursuing a revamp of immigration legal guidelines, indicating he’ll distance himself from the White Home in his underdog marketing campaign.

O’Rourke announced last Monday he’ll search to unseat Republican Governor Greg Abbott in subsequent yr’s election, aiming to turn into the primary Democrat to win a statewide race in Texas, the second most populous U.S. state, in three a long time.

“I don’t assume we now have seen sufficient urgency in terms of rewriting our immigration legal guidelines to match the wants and the fact that we see, particularly in our border communities,” O’Rourke instructed CNN’s “State of the Union” program on Sunday. “So, sure, we anticipate extra of our president and people who characterize us in Congress.”

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The Democratic president has made different points resembling infrastructure, social spending and COVID-19 aid increased legislative priorities than immigration reform. Democrats narrowly management Congress.

O’Rourke additionally took intention at Abbott, saying the governor is “utilizing the border proper now as a photograph alternative, scapegoating and vilifying immigrants, asking Texans to, quote, ‘defend themselves’ and take issues into their very own palms from this ‘invasion,’ as he describes it.”

Biden has confronted criticism from Democrats and Republicans over immigration and border points. Arrests on the U.S.-Mexico border have reached file ranges in latest months.

Requested whether or not he would welcome Biden to Texas to assist him marketing campaign, O’Rourke recommended he wouldn’t, saying: “This marketing campaign in Texas shouldn’t be going to be about Joe Biden. It isn’t going to be about Donald Trump. It isn’t going to be about anybody from outdoors of our state.”

Trump, identified for a hardline strategy on immigration, final yr defeated Biden in Texas whereas shedding the presidential election nationally.

Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador and Biden have pledged to create a working group on arms trafficking and associated transborder crime and border safety, the White Home mentioned on Friday.

Biden has saved in place a controversial order, first applied by his Republican predecessor Trump final yr, that permits migrants to be instantly expelled with out a possibility to hunt asylum in gentle of the pandemic.