Amid a surge of migrant families and unaccompanied children, former President Trump on Friday issued a statement scolding President Biden for a “spiraling tsunami” at the border.
“Our border is now totally out of control thanks to the disastrous leadership of Joe Biden,” Trump said. “Our great Border Patrol and ICE agents have been disrespected, demeaned, and mocked by the Biden Administration. A mass incursion into the country by people who should not be here is happening on an hourly basis, getting worse by the minute.”
Trump noted the Biden administration order to release migrants in South Texas who had tested positive for COVID-19 and the shutdown of interior immigration enforcement.
“The spiraling tsunami at the border is overwhelming local communities, depleting budgets, crowding hospitals, and taking jobs from legal American workers,” he said.
Trump said that when he left office, his administration “had achieved the most secure border in our country’s history.”
“Under Biden, it will soon be worse, more dangerous, and more out of control than ever before. He has violated his oath of office to uphold our Constitution and enforce our laws,” he said.
At the White House on Friday, press secretary Jen Psaki dismissed Trump’s statement.
“We don’t take our advice or counsel from former President Trump on immigration policy, which was not only inhumane but ineffective over the last four years,” she said. “We’re going to tread our own path forward and that includes treating children with humanity and respect and ensuring they’re safe when they cross our borders.”
Biden’s Homeland Security secretary, Alejandro Mayorkas, has insisted there is no “crisis” at the border. But a Democratic congressman representing a district on the Texas-Mexico border begs to differ.
“We are weeks, maybe even days, away from a crisis on the southern border. Inaction is simply not an option,” said Rep. Henry Cuellar on Thursday. “Our country is currently unprepared to handle a surge in migrants in the middle of the pandemic.”
In the Rio Grande Valley, sources report the Border Patrol’s detention of unaccompanied minors is more than 300% capacity, according to retired Border Patrol division chief Randy Clark.
Clark reported exclusively for Breitbart News that on Saturday, Mayorkas will visit several cities along the Texas border, including the newly opened detention center for unaccompanied children in Carrizo Springs.
Fulfillment of promises
Friday morning, Arizona Sheriff Mark Dannels of Cochise County blamed Biden’s reversal of Trump administration policies for the deteriorating situation at the border.
“We had it under control. This is frustrating. It’s frustrating,” he said in a Fox News interview reported by the Washington Times.
Dannels said politics should not interfere in the “business of policing what we do on this border in our communities.”
“When President Biden rescinded the emergency order on the southwest border, it stopped resources and stopped construction on our border,” he said.
“[It’s] forcing us back to 2019, when we had the largest, what I call, crime scene in the country to include the largest humanitarian situation going on,” he said.
Biden has fufilled campaign promises to stop construction of the border wall, eliminate the Remain in Mexico policy and restore “catch-and-release.” In Congress, his Democratic allies are proposing legislation that would provide a pathway for citizenship for illegal immigrants who are already in the country.
Biden also has ended agreements with Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala that allowed migrants to make asylum claims from their home countries.
Trump’s agreement with the Northern Triangle countries was one of many made with the aim of ending the 2019 migrant crisis.
In his statement Friday, Trump said Biden abandoned the “incredible” Remain in Mexico policy “probably because it worked so well.”
“Likewise, our Safe Third Agreements in Central America were extraordinarily successful, so Biden foolishly ditched them too,” he said.
