Biden goes on Caribbean vacation as US border crisis intensifies

The President and the First lady fly down to the US Virgin Islands on Tuesday for a week-long vacation, leaving behind a nation in crisis. This vacation comes just days after a once-in-a-lifetime winter storm left at least 70 dead and crippled huge swaths of the country.

"If the Supreme Court doesn't intervene today, then Title 42 could end today," Fox News White House correspondent Peter Doocy said on Tuesday. "The complete lack of information over the last few days from officials here has Republicans in Congress curious about what exactly this president wants to happen."

Texas Rep. Beth Van Duyne said that Democrats continue to see what's happening as a success at the border and that "every person that you're talking to in the Biden administration does not see this as a problem."

"When you talk to the President, he just says 'look, there's other problems that we have,'" she added.

Doocy argued that the White House cares less about the flooding of migrants across the border than it does about the fact that Governors are bussing them away to Democrat-led cities in order to relieve pressure on the border communities.

"Officials here are saying less about migrants arriving at the southern border than they are about migrants being bused to the Naval Observatory, where Vice President Harris lives," Doocy said. "The White House now says [Texas Gov. Greg] Abbott abandoned children on the side of the road in below-freezing temperatures on Christmas Eve."

He expressed doubts that there will be any answers soon as to what the President wants to do as a replacement to Title 42, a pandemic-era policy that allowed authorities to quickly and efficiently expel migrants on public health grounds, as he leaves for his vacation.

"It's unlikely we get any kind of new commitment to an immigration policy, a post-Title 42 policy, within the next few days because President Biden is going to be in St. Croix," Doocy said. "It has now been one full week since we were promised details about what the White House wants to replace Title 42, details we are still waiting for."

On December 19, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters that the administration would share more information "tomorrow" and that there will be a call on these very issues, a call that Doocy says never happened.

According to the Daily Mail, the White House claims that this is a working trip, and that "the President will continue to closely monitor updates and will remain in close touch with staff over the New Year."

As soon as Title 42 is lifted, the southern border is expected to be flooded by an unprecedented number of migrants, all of whom will be struggling to find shelter at a time when cities are declaring a state of emergency and while all 48 contiguous US states have recorded below-freezing temperatures.

It remains unclear how the president will handle this crisis from sunny St. Croix.