Karoline Leavitt, national press secretary for Donald Trump’s presidential campaign, told Newsmax on Tuesday the furthest thing from President Joe Biden’s mind regarding his immigration policy is the safety and security of Americans.
Biden on Tuesday issued an executive order imposing significant restrictions on migrants seeking asylum at the southern border in a bid to neutralize immigration as a political liability ahead of a debate later this month with Trump and for the November elections.
The order would bar migrants from being granted asylum when U.S. officials deem that the southern border is overwhelmed. The order will go into effect when the number of border encounters between ports of entry hits 2,500 a day.
"Joe Biden's immigration policy can be summed up in two words: America last," Leavitt told "Prime News" and host Joe Pinion. "Joe Biden wants to give mass amnesty to millions of illegal immigrants that he has allowed into this country.
"We are already paying for them with our tax dollars, housing them in hotels, sending them to the city of their choice on taxpayer-funded flights, many of them then going to their city of their choice and committing heinous crimes, and rather than being deported, they are released back into the community to do more harm."
Leavitt noted the case of illegal immigrant Bernardo Castro-Mata of Venezuela, who allegedly shot at New York police officers Monday, injuring two. Castro-Mata reportedly was caught crossing the southern border illegally in July 2023, but his immigration case was dismissed by a Chicago judge on May 6.
She also mentioned Laken Riley, a 22-year-old Georgia nursing student who was murdered, with the suspect being another illegal immigrant from Venezuela, Jose Ibarra, 26. Ibarra reportedly entered the U.S. illegally in September 2022 but was released after about a day in custody. He made his way to New York, but months before Riley’s murder, he was arrested on a charge of endangering a child and released.
"How many more lives of Americans need to be put in danger and lost at the hands of illegal immigrants before Joe Biden does something?" Leavitt said. "But he doesn't care about our safety and security. What he cares about is flooding the electorate with a new voting base.
"Ultimately, that's where the Democrats are headed with this. They want to give these illegal immigrants voting rights so that they can win an election because real Americans don't support these policies because they're being put last."
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Michael Katz ✉
Michael Katz is a Newsmax reporter with more than 30 years of experience reporting and editing on news, culture, and politics.
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