Hunter Biden Calls Dems' Approach to Immigration a Failure: 'You Don't Get to Pretend This Isn't Happening'

Hunter Biden criticized Democratic leadership and his father's administration over immigration policy in a wide-ranging podcast interview published on Monday, calling the handling of unlawful immigration as a failure and arguing that party leaders have avoided confronting the consequences.

"You don't get to pretend this isn't happening," Biden said during a five-and-a-half-hour appearance on The Shawn Ryan Show, referring to illegal immigration and its impact on U.S. communities.

Biden said he supports legal immigration but drew a clear distinction between lawful entry and unauthorized crossings. "We need vibrant immigration," he said. "But we don't want immigrants that are coming here illegally, draining us of resources, and being prioritized above people that are actual, literal heroes... or anybody else in our society."

His comments mark one of the most direct critiques he has made of Democratic immigration policy and of President Joe Biden's record, breaking with years of relative silence on policy matters. Biden argued that the scale of illegal immigration has become impossible to ignore, particularly for working-class communities.

During his father's presidency, an estimated 2.4 million immigrants entered the United States annually, according to the Congressional Budget Office. A Goldman Sachs analysis found that roughly 60% crossed the border illegally.

Biden also claimed that the White House had secured Republican support for a bipartisan border deal negotiated by Sens. James Lankford, Kyrsten Sinema and Chris Murphy, but that the effort collapsed ahead of the 2024 election. "Donald Trump stepped in six months before the election and told [Republicans] he was going to primary every single one of them that voted for that," Biden said as The New York Post reports. "Because we're addicted to the problem."

The interview echoed broader Republican criticism that Democrats have failed to enforce immigration laws, though Biden framed his remarks as frustration with political posturing rather than ideology.

Beyond immigration, Biden also criticized the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan, calling it "an obvious f—ing failure," while acknowledging that leaving the country was ultimately the right decision. "There was a better way to do it," he said, adding that responsibility rested with the president. "The buck stops with him."