KENTUCKY — On today’s program, we’re sitting down one-on-one with Congressman Andy Barr, R-Ky., of Lexington. 

The Republican lawmaker has been serving as the U.S. representative for Kentucky’s 6th congressional district, which covers 16 counties in Central Kentucky, since 2013.

During this segment, Rep. Barr responds to recent executive orders by President Joe Biden that will allow him to partly suspend asylum requests at the U.S.-Mexico border when daily unauthorized crossings reach a threshold of 2,500 migrants.

“Yes, I mean this, this executive order is a cheap political stunt. I mean, this is a president who, for the last three years, has said that he doesn’t have the executive authority to secure this other border. And here he is in an election year, several months before an election where he’s behind in the polls, trying to make it up with an executive order. He originally said he didn’t have the power to issue, but the bottom line, even if you were to give him credit for an executive order, this executive order actually shows how unserious the administration is on actually securing the border because what the executive order asserts to do is to actually legalize a certain amount of illegal migration to the country. It does nothing about the categorical parole policy that he’s put into place with his impeached Secretary of Homeland Security, Alejandro Mayorkas. It does nothing about the catch and release policy that has been the hallmark of this administration’s open borders policy, and it doesn’t re-implement the remain in Mexico policy that the Customs and Border Protection Agency is told members of Congress like myself would solve 75% of the problem,” explained Barr.

In a recent event announcing the new measure and marking the 12th anniversary of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, Biden said that the relief action was not a political move.

“Folks, I’m not interested in playing politics on the border or immigration. I’m interested in fixing it. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again today: I will work with anyone to solve these problems. That’s my responsibility as president. That’s our responsibility as Americans,” Biden said.

You can watch the full In Focus Kentucky segment in the player above.