Trump Criticizes Biden as Border Crisis Escalates

Trump Criticizes Biden as Border Crisis Escalates

Former President Donald Trump excoriated President Joe Biden on Friday over the worsening crisis on the southern border, calling his successor’s leadership “disastrous.”

“Our border is now totally out of control thanks to the disastrous leadership of Joe Biden,” Trump wrote in a statement released on March 5 through an intermediary.

“Our great Border Patrol and ICE agents have been disrespected, demeaned, and mocked by the Biden Administration,” Trump added, referring to the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency.

“A mass incursion into the country by people who should not be here is happening on an hourly basis, getting worse by the minute. Many have criminal records, and many others have and are spreading covid,” he wrote, referring to COVID-19, the disease caused by the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus.

Trump issued that statement as the Biden administration struggles to contain a deepening crisis on the border. The latest illegal alien influx was triggered by the undoing of several key Trump immigration policies designed to discourage border crossings.

“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. We will chart our own path forward including treating children with humanity and respect and ensuring their safety when they cross our borders,” White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki told reporters on Friday.

Biden told reporters on Tuesday that the border situation did not amount to a crisis.

“We’ll be able to handle it, God willing,” the president said.

The number of illegal crossings has steadily increased since the presidential election in November, particularly by unaccompanied minors. The Biden administration opened overflow shelters to handle the influx and has begun to release minors to relatives and sponsors in the United States to clear space.

The Trump administration used its public health authority to expel crossing minors, a policy that both stemmed the tide of illegal aliens and deterred further crossings. The Biden administration said it would discontinue the practice. Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) sent a letter to Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas on March 1, questioning the rationale for axing the policy, citing recent reports about illegal aliens who tested positive for the CCP virus after crossing the border into the United States.

“Refusing to use the authorities available to law enforcement during a global pandemic creates unsafe conditions for Border Patrol agents and the broader public, as well as for the children traveling to the border,” Johnson wrote. “Not surprisingly, it is also resulting in a surge at the southwest border that our facilities and infrastructure are not able to handle.”

In the brief statement, Trump also decried the temporary enforcement freeze which has suspended nearly all deportation proceedings, including those for aliens with criminal records.

“Interior enforcement has been shut down—criminals that were once promptly removed by our Administration are now being released back onto the street to commit heinous and violent crimes,” Trump said. “ICE officers are desperate to remove these convicted criminals, but Biden won’t let them.”
https://www.theepochtimes.com/trump-criticizes-biden-as-border-crisis-escalates_3722405.html?utm_source=pushengage BY IVAN PENTCHOUKOV March 5, 2021 Updated: March 5, 2021

Number of migrant children crossing the border on pace to shatter all-time record

Members of the Domestic Policy Council were set to tell President Biden Tuesday that the number of migrant children who cross the southern border this year is on pace to exceed an all-time record — by 45 percent — citing unreleased data from the Department of Homeland Security.

In a presentation made up of nearly 40 slides obtained by Axios, the DPC cites data from DHS and the Department of Health and Human Services to warn that the Biden administration is 20,000 beds short of what it needs to properly house the 117,000 unaccompanied child migrants expected to cross the border this year.

Despite establishing multiple new tent-style shelters and loosening COVID-19 restrictions, the DCP is telling Biden that the administration will fall short of its needs by a couple thousand.

The replacement of former President Donald Trump, who maintained a hard line on immigration, with Biden, who has undone some of his predecessor’s key border initiatives, has set off a new caravan to the US border of Central American and Mexican migrants, including thousands of unescorted children.

In his first month, Biden ended construction of Trump’s signature US-Mexico border wall and began to end the “Remain in Mexico” policy under which about 71,000 Central American asylum applicants were awaiting rulings in Mexico. He issued an order affirming the 2012 Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, which gives work permits and protection from deportation to people brought illegally to the US as minors, and proposed legislation that would create a path to citizenship for the estimated 11 million illegal immigrants in the US.

The White House declined to comment Tuesday when reached by The Post. A spokesperson for DHS did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

During Tuesday’s White House press briefing, press secretary Jen Psaki was asked about the numbers, as well as DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas’ insistence a day earlier that there was not a crisis at the border.

“Well, I’ll leave that to the Secretary of Homeland Security to define,” Psaki began, “He said it was a challenge, it is a challenge.

“We have more than 7,000 unaccompanied kids who have come into the United States, and that is certainly a lot of children that we are trying to treat humanely and safely and processed through the system as quickly as we can,” she continued, calling it “not easy.”

She went on to note that the president was regularly briefed by the DPC.

While claiming that the border was not facing a crisis, Mayorkas said while speaking to reporters Monday that the problems the agency did face should be blamed on the previous administration.

“Let me explain to you why [fixing the broken immigration system] is hard and why it is going take time. I think it is important to understand what we have inherited because it defines the situation as it currently stands. Entire systems are not rebuilt in a day or in a few weeks,” he began. “To put it succinctly, the prior administration dismantled our nation’s immigration system in its entirety.”

Mayorkas’ comments came before reporters had been given the chance to ask any questions, making it clear he was likely expecting questions on the burgeoning crisis at the US-Mexico border, a crisis that has erupted in the month since Biden was sworn in.

When taking questions, he was also asked by an ABC News reporter why he was told members of the press would be not be able to tour migrant facilities in Texas. The reporter had been told the administration would not allow such tours due to coronavirus restrictions.

Mayorkas replied that he would look into the matter.

Pressed by the Daily Caller, the Health and Human Services Administration for Children and Families (ACF) affirmed, “The Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) is not hosting media tours of unaccompanied children (UC) facilities currently due to the COVID-19 pandemic,. If media tours resume, we will send a media advisory.”
https://nypost.com/2021/03/02/migrant-children-border-crossings-to-surpass-record-by-45-percent-report/ By: Emily Jacobs March 2, 2021

Comment: It is almost impossible to believe that in the first 45 days of the Biden Administration, they have created nothing short of a border crisis. An uncontrolled border of human trafficking & suffering.