Donald Trump has slammed President Joe Biden and his ‘disastrous leadership’ for allowing a ‘spiraling tsunami’ of migrants and ‘criminals’ over the United States border.
The former president claimed the Biden administration has ‘disrespected, demeaned, and mocked’ Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Border Patrol in a lengthy statement issued on Friday.
Trump’s forceful comments come as the Biden administration struggles to combat the swarms of unauthorized migrants currently crossing the border, and as U.S. Border Patrol agents revealed on Friday that they had detained nearly 100,000 migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border in February.
It was the highest arrest total for the month of February since 2006.
On Wednesday alone, agents detained more than 4,500 migrants crossing the border with Mexico, according to Reuters. It has sparked fears that illegal entries could soar in the coming weeks.
Despite the administration’s floundering response, in a press briefing on Friday, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki dismissed Trump’s border comments, slamming the former president’s policies as ‘ineffective’ and ‘inhumane’.
‘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,’ Psaki told reporters.
‘We’re going to chart our own path forward and that includes treating children with humanity and respect and ensuring they’re safe when they cross our borders.’
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Biden has shown some concern over the sudden surge in migrants at the border, especially the spike in unaccompanied children who are attempting to make the crossing.
It comes after the president exempted children in February from a Trump-era policy known as Title 42.
Trump blames Biden for the spike, touting his own ‘wonderful relationship’ with the ‘great president’ of Mexico, as he accused the new administration of ‘gross incompetence’.
‘Our border is now totally out of control thanks to the disastrous leadership of Joe Biden,’ Trump said in the statement.
‘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.’
Of the migrants in question, the former president claims that ‘many have criminal records’ and ‘are spreading COVID’.
‘Criminals that were once promptly removed by the Administration are now being released back onto the street to commit heinous and violent crimes,’ he continued. ‘ICE officers are desperate to remove these convicted criminals, but Biden won’t let them.’
Trump added that the new influx is ‘overwhelming local communities, depleting budgets, crowding hospitals, and taking jobs from legal American workers.
‘When I left office, we 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.
Trump slammed Biden in particular for reinstating the ‘Catch and Release’ policy, stating that as a result, ‘illegal immigrants from every corner of the Earth will descend upon our border and never be returned’.
‘You can never have a secure border unless people who cross illegally are promptly removed,’ the statement added.
Trump also blasted Biden’s decision to end the Remain in Mexico Policy, which he believed was ‘incredible’. He accused Biden of abandoning it ‘probably because it worked so well’.
‘Likewise, our Safe Third Agreements in Central America were extraordinarily successful, so Biden foolishly ditched them too,’ he continued.
Trump ended the statement will a direct call to action to Biden and his administration that more must be done to stop the thousands that are currently crossing into the U.S. on a daily basis.
‘The Biden Administration must act immediately to end the border nightmare that they have unleashed onto our Nation,’ Trump insisted. ‘Keep illegal immigration, crime, and the China Virus out of our country!’
The shocking 100,000 February figures released by border agents in Friday show the scope of a growing surge of migrants arriving at the southwest border as Biden seeks to roll back some of Trump’s restrictive policies.
In particular, an increasing number of children arriving at the border without a parent or legal guardian has forced U.S. officials in recent weeks to scramble for housing options and take steps to speed up their release to sponsors in the United States.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services said that as of March 4, the agency had 7,700 unaccompanied minors in custody, the highest level since 2019. As of last week, it had roughly 7,700 beds available.
The nearly 100,000 migrants detained at the U.S.-Mexico border in February is a significant increase over 78,000 encountered in January.
February’s total appears to be the highest monthly number since June 2019 during a large border surge that Trump cited as justification for a broad immigration crackdown.
The 4,500 people caught by agents on Wednesday are also believed to be an indicator that the figures could rise further in March.
The figure is comparable to the daily average of arrests in May 2019, the peak of a major border surge that Trump used to justify his broad immigration crackdown.
In contrast, in January 2021, Border Patrol caught about 2,400 migrants a day at the southwest border.
The spike comes after Biden rolled back Trump’s immigration policies since taking office – including halting the construction of the border wall, ending the Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP), and resuming catch and release.
Sheriff Mark Dannels of Cochise County, Arizona, has claimed that the halt in construction at the wall has left gaps for people to sneak through.
‘As a result of that one area where the fence is not complete, we get five or six groups a day coming across there,’ he told Fox & Friends.
MPP, branded the ‘Remain in Mexico’ policy by Trump, was crafted with Mexico as part of an agreement not to impose tariffs. Biden has ended the asylum cooperative agreements (ACAs) with Northern Triangle countries as well, which were brought in by Trump during the 2019 migrant crisis.
And Biden has also declared that he wants to offer a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants.
Republicans have criticized Biden for rolling back Trump’s hardline immigration policies, saying the shift will lead to more illegal immigration.
Kevin McCarthy, the top Republican in the House of Representatives, sent a letter to Biden on Friday that requested a meeting to discuss the issue, saying he had ‘great concern’ with the Biden administration’s approach to border.
‘We must acknowledge the border crisis, develop a plan, and, in no uncertain terms, strongly discourage individuals from Mexico and Central America from ever making the dangerous journey to our southern border,’ McCarthy wrote in the letter.
‘We are weeks, maybe even days, away from a crisis on the southern border,’ Representative Henry Cuellar, a Democrat whose Texas district abuts Mexico, said in a statement on Thursday. ‘Our country is currently unprepared to handle a surge in migrants in the middle of the pandemic.’
Amid the criticism, Biden has taken some action to address the issue and is sending senior advisors to the border to assess the problem, the White House claimed.
‘President Biden has asked senior members of his team to travel to the border region in order to provide a full briefing to him on the government response to the influx of unaccompanied minors and an assessment of additional steps that can be taken to ensure the safety and care of these children,’ White House spokesman Vedant Patel said.
The timing of the visit would remain confidential because of security and privacy concerns, Patel added.
The administration is also now taking steps that would speed up the processing of families caught at the border and greatly reduce the use of family detention centers.
It plans to convert two family detention centers in Texas into facilities that would quickly process incoming migrant families and allow them to be released pending the outcome of their cases, according to three people familiar with the plan.
Yet Biden’s administration is also asking migrants to stop attempts to cross the border.
‘We are not saying don’t come. We are saying don’t come now, because we will be able to deliver a safe and orderly process for them as quickly as possible,’ Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said this week.
Trump’s forceful statement on Friday came after his speech at the Conservative Political Action Committee (CPAC) last Sunday in which he also hit out at Biden over the border.
He accused Biden of creating a ‘self-inflicted humanitarian and national security disaster’.
On Tuesday, 13 people who crossed into the U.S. illegally died after the SUV they were crammed into with 12 others was involved in a deadly car crash with a semi-truck in California.
*story by DailyMail.com
