The Department of Homeland Security and the Biden administration are "grappling with a crisis that we haven't seen in decades," because of the policies that are in place, including the plan by Border Patrol to release migrants without a court date, and that points to a "lawless border,' former acting DHS Secretary Chad Wolf said Monday.
"The number of folks in custody is around 10,000," said Wolf on Fox Business's "Mornings With Maria."
"In 2020, we had 800 in custody….these are increasing month after month. In February, we had over 100,000 illegal apprehensions. Once March closes, you'll likely see that number higher, much north of 100,000."
The release of immigrants without court dates points to the sheer volume of people, and also "tells you not only do we have an open border, we now have a lawless border," said Wolf.
"If they're not handing out court dates, then what's the incentive, or what's the issue of when people come across illegally. There's nothing here that disincentivizes that."
He added that it is incumbent on the Biden administration to take action and stop the illegal flow of immigrants. Under the Trump administration, he added, "we had a number of policies and programs in place at the end of January that kept any type of surge under control and allowed us to remove individuals back to their home countries."
But Biden, since day one, "reversed all of those policies without a plan in place," said Wolf. "If they knew they were going to do that, why not have temporary facilities built, why not have all of these things that they're trying to do on the fly?"
He added that the administration was overwhelmed, and he doesn't know if that was because the situation wasn't thought out.
"It's going to be very difficult," said Wolf. "I was there in 2019 where we had a crisis. Trying to dig out from that crisis and stem that crisis when you're in the middle of it and you're responding to it with thousands of individuals coming across the border daily is a very, very difficult thing to do. So I don't think this is done yet."
He said he thinks the situation will continue well into June, but the Biden administration must make a decision.
"They can continue to talk about encouraging (immigrants) to come here or they can start talking about enforcement,' said Wolf. "They can start talking about holding people accountable that break our laws and cross the border illegally."
Meanwhile, Gov. Greg Abbott in Texas has said he wants answers because it's not certain if the young migrants being permitted to stay are being tested for COVID-19.
"I believe that Gov. Abbott deserves those answers," said Wolf. "When we talk about minors, the primary reason, incentive that folks are pushing a number of minors to the border is because this administration has advertised that if the minor shows up alone at the border, they will be released here into the U.S."
But under the Trump administration, using the Title 42 rule, minors were sent back to their families and home countries, said Wolf.
"We were not releasing them into Mexico like this administration would want you to believe," he said. "That's simply not accurate. We were removing them back to their home countries, putting them back in touch with their families. We wanted to disincentivize the push that families are going to put their children into smugglers and traffickers' hands."
It's also "important to remember" that "75% of those minors coming across are not 7-and 8-year-old (children) as the administration would want you to believe. They're between the ages of 15 and 17 and the vast majority are male," said Wolf. "They know what they're doing. They're doing it because they know once they get to the border they will be released into the U.S."
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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