Missouri Rep. Jason Smith decried the Biden administration's immigration policy, telling Newsmax TV on Thursday "they're pretty good at doing everything wrong."
Appearing on "The Chris Salcedo Show," Smith quoted data from the Customs and Border Protection agency that showed a dramatic increase in the number of migrants who were caught attempting to enter the country illegally in March.
"They released data today that said over 172,000 illegals crossed the southern border," he said. "That is more people than the entire population of Springfield, Missouri, here in my home state."
CBP stated the increase of apprehensions was a marked increase from the previous months.
"In March 2021, CBP encountered more than 172,000 persons attempting entry along the Southwest border," the agency said on its website. "This total represented a 71 percent increase over February 2021."
Smith further condemned not only the amount but who had been stopped at the border.
"We have seen documentations of people on the FBI terrorist watch list that have been apprehended at the border," Smith said. "How many do you think have not been apprehended at the border?"
The 40-year-old first-term Republican who represtents Missouri's 8th Congressional District in the southest corner of the state blamed the crisis at the border squarely at President Joe Biden.
"The Biden administration, they're pretty good at doing everything wrong," Smith said. "They're the ones who created the border crisis that we see right now.
"And this is all the result because President Biden did not like [then-President Donald] Trump's executive orders."
Smith claimed Biden restarted construction of the border wall because it violated the law under the Budget and Impoundment Control Act.
"He stopped construction of the border wall. He illegally stopped the construction of the border wall," Smith said. "I mean, that's a violation of the Budget and Impoundment [Control] Act. That was money that was appropriated in a bipartisan fashion — billions of dollars by Congress.
"And President Biden stopped that money. That's why he's restarting it. Because he's learning that, in fact, he violated the law. He abandoned the wall and broke the law."
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