Republican tears into Biden 'photo-op' trip to border in El Paso

Tony Gonzales tore into Joe Biden for refusing to propose solutions to the southern migration crisis as Republicans slammed the president for his 'photo-op' trip.

The Texas representative, whose district includes the longest stretch of southern border than any other jurisdiction, said it took Biden '80 years to visit the border' and claimed that the White House told him that he could not attend the president's visit to the border on Sunday.

Several Republicans took to social media to claim Biden's trip nearly two years into his presidency was 'too little, too late.'

'The president essentially lied to my face,' Gonzales told Fox & Friends Monday morning, claiming that the president told him during a trip to Texas during the fallout from a Uvalde shooting that they would directly speak about the border crisis. 

Texas Rep. Tony Gonzales accused President Joe Biden of not visiting the border for '80 years' and said the trip on Sunday was just a 'photo-op'

He also said that Biden's trip on Sunday 'wasn't about solving problems.'

'This was a partisan trip that was just made as a photo op,' Gonzales told Fox & Friends.

'It took the president 80 years to get to the border. I suspect it's going to take another 80 years before he comes back,' he added. 'Clearly this shows the administration has zero interest in solving this. They think it's a political problem. They don't think it's a policy problem.'

Biden, 80, visited and surveyed the border between Mexico and El Paso, Texas on Sunday – it was his first trip to physically see in-person the southern border first-hand nearly two full years after taking office.

It followed years of demands from mostly Republicans that the president witness the southern border crisis and hear from front-line workers dealing with the massive influx in migration.

Gonzales says the Biden administration won't be successful in their response to the border until they realize it's a policy problem. He noted that there was not a crisis at the border under former Presidents Barack Obama, George W. Bush or Bill Clinton.

Biden visited the El Paso, Texas border barrier on Sunday in his first-ever trip to the southern border on Sunday, January 8 

North Dakota Senator Kevin Cramer said Biden's trip was 'two years too late.'

'He should have visited the southern border as soon as he caused this crisis,' the Republican lawmaker wrote in a Monday morning tweet, claiming 'it's time to secure our border' and help relieve overwhelmed Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officials.

Biden's trip was added on to his visit to Mexico this week for the North American Leaders' Summit in Mexico City with Mexican and Canadian leaders.

The trip came just three days after Biden announced on Thursday new measures to address the southern border crisis and migration as it relates to asylum-seekers specifically.

The president expanded use of the Trump-era COVID ban known as Title 42, which allowed for the instant deportation of asylum seekers from certain countries in the midst of the public health crisis.

He did, however, launch a separate program that would allow 30,000 asylum seekers from Cuba, Haiti and Nicaragua to pre-apply for asylum and either fly or enter into the U.S. through legal points of entry.