Republican Rep. Byron Donalds of Florida said that the situation on the southern border had the Biden White House “reeling” Thursday.

Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas announced in the Federal Register that 26 laws would be suspended in order to start construction of a border wall on federally-protected land Thursday, stating it was an “immediate need.” Mayorkas has previously claimed that the border is secure on multiple occasions. (RELATED: ‘Man-Made Disaster’: Byron Donalds Blames ‘Green New Deal Stuff’ For Maui Wildfire)

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre claimed that Biden opposed the border wall, but was complying with federal law by building it.

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“Everybody knows our southern border is a mess,” Donalds told Fox Business host Larry Kudlow. “You have the mayor of New York, Eric Adams, is planning to go down to do something the president hasn’t done, see the southern border in person, actually look at it. So this White House is reeling. They have to respond to the political damage they have caused, the actual damage that they have caused and they’re going to throw this fig leaf but there is significant work that needs to be done at the southern border.”

Over 1.8 million illegal immigrants have been encountered at the U.S.-Mexico border during fiscal year 2023, according to data released by United States Customs and Border Protection, following 2,206,436 encounters in fiscal year 2022 and 1,659,206 in fiscal year 2021. Fox News reported another 600,000 migrants evaded CBP in fiscal year 2022.

“I wish he would actually do the right thing. I think that would come after the 2024 elections when he goes down to just a terrible defeat, and frankly Joe Biden deserves to be defeated,” Donalds told Kudlow. “Nothing is working right. We’re talking about the border, but everything is going wrong. He is the master of disaster, Joe Biden, he has got to be defeated. It is just that simple.”

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