Pelosi slams GOP for emphasizing border issues: ‘I guess their Dr. Seuss approach didn’t work for them’

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House Speaker Nancy Pelosi slammed Republicans for their focus on immigration in recent weeks as massive numbers of migrants attempt to cross into the United States both illegally and legally, hoping for more favorable treatment under President Biden. 

The situation at the border, which saw more than 100,000 law enforcement encounters with migrants on the Southern border in February, has become a point that Republicans have harped on for weeks.

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., addressed the topic Thursday, saying in his weekly press conference that those 100,000 contacts are more than the population of Biden's hometown of Scranton, Pennsylvania.

Pelosi, meanwhile, mocked Republicans for what has been another focus -- cancel culture and the demonization by the left of many things that were once considered mundane, including Dr. Seuss books.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of Calif., speaks during a news conference on Capitol Hill in Washington, Thursday, Jan. 21, 2021. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)

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"I guess their Dr. Seuss approach didn’t work for them. Now they have to change the subject," Pelosi said to reporters Thursday of Republicans' focus on the border. 

McCarthy, however, painted a grim picture of the situation on the border in his own comments to reporters. 

"Health and Human Services reported they are taking in 321 children a day, up from the weekly average of 203 just a few weeks ago," McCarthy said. 

He added: "On Monday I'm going to the border. I'm taking 12 members with me ... working on trying to find a solution. But we know the solution is quite easy, because most of this is all caused by Biden's actions just in a short timeframe."

McCarthy also said that people on the border are reporting that the deluge of migrants has changed life for the worse.

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One rancher, McCarthy said, no longer lets his children play outside unsupervised. The mayor of another town, McCarthy said, told House Republicans that "the facilities down there are so packed, Border Patrol is left to just release migrants into the middle of the town. There's a car chase now just about every single day. Just this Sunday, they had a head-on crash."

Migrants at the Southern border wear shirts with Biden's campaign logo on them, that say "please let us in."  (Reuters)

McCarthy added: "The migrants are sometimes armed. In the last two weeks, they've had to shut down the schools because armed migrants are out. In January, multiple officers were shot. That's just in this community."

McCarthy also launched broadsides at Pelosi's leadership of the House during his press conference. He was asked about a statement from Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., slamming Republicans who voted against her motion to adjourn the House as "the 40 white flags of the Surrender Caucus."

The GOP leader briefly addressed the attack on 40 members of his caucus by Greene before lambasting Pelosi for being the source of the frustration that led Greene to make her motion to adjourn, and so many Republicans to vote with her. 

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"We can always think Marjorie's gonna do that," McCarthy said of the lightning-rod House member's actions. "They kicked her off all committees. That's the only committee she has. Every member has the right to make the motion. People have disagreements on the strategy and what's best to use. But there's a frustration on the floor."

"The frustration of taking away the minority's right for a motion to recommit. It's been more than 100 years. The idea that now we sit where members, do they even come up and show for work because of proxies," McCarthy continued. "Committee staff and committee work isn't even produced. A schedule that's never kept to, that she could -- that you think you're gonna have a district work period and the next day they say no, we're taking that back."

"So, there's frustration all around," McCarthy said. "This is probably the poorest run Congress in the history of Congress."

Fox News' Chad Pergram contributed to this report.