The crisis unfolding at the nation's border with Mexico was "planned" during President Joe Biden's presidential campaign, former acting ICE director Tom Homan said Monday.
"They can't admit to the American people that they planned this crisis," Homan said on Fox News' "Fox and Friends." "When Joe Biden made those promises during the campaign, of ending ICE detention, ending the 'Remain in Mexico' program, giving amnesty and DACA and healthcare, when you make those types of promises, you know they're going to come."
Homan's comments come ahead of a trip Monday to the border area near El Paso by House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy and a congressional delegation. The group is set to tour a processing facility being used for illegal immigrants as well as other sites.
McCarthy will be accompanied by GOP Reps. John Katko of New York; Chuck Fleischmann of Tennessee; Clay Higgins of Louisiana; Tony Gonzales of Texas; Michael Cloud of Texas; Carlos Gimenez of Florida; Yvette Herrell of New Mexico; David Joyce of Ohio; Mariannette Miller-Meeks of Iowa; August Pfluger of Texas; John Rose of Tennessee; and Maria Salazar of Florida, reports KFOX14 in El Paso.
"On the border, we see that Biden's policies created a border crisis," McCarthy said last week when announcing the trip. "President Biden announced that it was his priority to offer citizenship for 11 million undocumented immigrants. What did he think would happen?"
Democrats such as New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren used trips to the border during the Trump administration to draw attention to conditions they decried as subpar and that they argued were the result of Trump administration policies.
Biden, meanwhile, had campaigned on a promise to offer more assistance to people seeking refugee status in the United States, which Republicans say is attracting record numbers of illegal immigrants.
White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki, however, has said it's "absolutely incorrect" to refer to Biden's policy as "open borders," as the "vast majority of individuals apprehended or encountered at the border continue to be denied entry and are returned."
Homan told Fox News on Monday morning that the numbers of "alien children" were down 70% in 2020 from the year before.
"Illegal immigration was down 50-80% depending on what month you looked at," he said.
"Last month, Joe Biden’s policy created a 300% increase in alien children" coming across the border.
The border is not secure, he added, "because the Biden administration has undone all the success of the Trump administration. You got a job to do. Educate yourself, give me a call. I’ll tell you how to fix it, but you can’t go on national TV and say this is President Trump’s fault."
Homan said when promises are made, people expect they are going to happen.
"They can’t go on national TV and say we sold out America to win an election," Homan said. "Joe Biden can’t say I folded to the left to get votes and gave up the security of the border. Again, the most secure border we’ve ever seen (was) under President Trump."
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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