New York Democrat says Biden 'failed to act quickly enough' to secure the border

Rep. Pat Ryan called out President Biden for his failure to secure the border earlier in his presidency and said Vice President Harris should focus on the issue if she wins.

Rep. Pat Ryan criticized President Biden for his failure to secure the border earlier in his presidency and said that Vice President Harris needs to focus on border security as well should she win the election. 

"The president was in charge, is in charge, including securing our border, which is a foundational responsibility of any nation state, and failed to act quickly enough," Ryan said. 

The border continues to be an issue of division between Republicans and Democrats ahead of November, with former President Trump announcing that he will likely visit the southern border to draw a contrast with the "radical" Vice President Kamala Harris.

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"That is something that I think shouldn't even be political," Ryan said of his criticism of the Biden administration's border policy. "That's just the facts on the ground, and I'm the kind of person, right or wrong, I think right, that calls that out when I see it regardless or who's in charge and that's what the American people really want right now." 

Ryan also said that his constituents have told him their concerns about the border crisis, an issue he said he has spoken out about in Congress since "day one." 

"I called out President Biden aggressively in a way that very few of my Democratic colleagues did," the New York congressman said. "We pushed him to take action. And I want to see the vice president, should she hopefully take the reins soon, continue to push on that [issue]."

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"We‘ve seen by the way, in the last month, illegal border crossings … lower now [in] the last month than they were at the end of the Trump presidency at the same month," he said. 

"So we‘re making progress, but we have to restore order at the border and I think [Harris] gets that," Ryan said.

The Harris campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Fox News Digital.