Dem rep claims with straight face that overstaying visas has ‘nothing to do with the border’

Democratic Rep. Jason Crow of Colorado claimed that Biden administration border policies were not implicated by visa overstays during a Tuesday CNN appearance.

Mohamed Sabry Soliman, an Egyptian national who overstayed a non-immigrant visa, allegedly attacked a Sunday event supporting hostages taken during the Oct. 7, 2023, attack by the radical Islamic terrorist group Hamas that killed over 1,200 people in Israel, wounding at least eight people. Crow accused President Donald Trump of failing to prevent the attack, arguing that the administration’s focus on border security distracted it from addressing those who overstay visas.

“The president condemned the attack and then turned and blamed Biden, saying in part of his social media post about it, congressman, saying that this man came in through Biden’s ridiculous open border policy,” “CNN News Central” co-host Kate Bolduan told Crow. “I mean, the suspect, according to DHS, is here illegally, applied for asylum, denied, and then overstayed a visa. What’s your reaction to the president’s take here? I mean, what do you think needs to happen now?”

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“President Trump routinely just attacks his opponents when terrible things happen. And that’s not leadership. That’s not the type of leadership that the president needs,” Crow claimed. “Of course we need answers. We need answers about the visa overstay, and a visa overstay is not — has nothing to do with the border. You know, I believe in border security, we need border security, but in this incident, it doesn’t look like that is what is at play here at all.”

Colorado passed legislation that erected new barriers to efforts by United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to apprehend illegal immigrants.

“We need to enforce the laws, there’s no doubt about it,” Crow said. “But President Trump has been president for nearly six months now, and I want to know why an attack that had been planned for the entirety of that time was missed. You know, what should have been seen, what were the warning signals, what did the FBI know, what the FBI didn’t know — we do need some answers to all of these questions.”

The Border Patrol encountered millions of illegal immigrants during the Biden administration, according to figures released by U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP). The figures have seen a drastic drop since Trump took office on Jan. 20, 2025.

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