Tom Homan: Biden’s border surge – here’s how president’s team has created a crisis in record time
It was not long ago that illegal crossings at our southern border were at historic lows. This was during the Trump administration.
The president accomplished this in part by obtaining agreements with Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador.
President Trump also did it by building the wall that he promised to build to protect America and slow illegal entry into the United States. This is a wall that the data clearly shows works and a wall that the experts on the border will attest works.
The historic low in illegal border crossings was also due to the Remain in Mexico Program along with the Title 42 designation that would require most illegal aliens to be immediately returned to Mexico because of the COVID pandemic.
But it doesn’t stop there. President Trump also succeeded by ending catch and release and removing the enticements that cause vulnerable people to put themselves in harm’s way.
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In a little over 40 days, the Biden administration has taken almost every one of these accomplishments and ended them.
The legal tools and programs that made our border the most secure I have seen were systematically destroyed by President Biden and his administration in an effort to appease the open borders progressive left.
Once again politics overruled public safety and broader security concerns.
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In July 2020, I wrote an op-ed for Fox News where I predicted that if Biden became president we would lose control of our southern border.
I was attacked by many critics who said that I was using scare tactics to get President Trump reelected. Those same critics ignored my almost 35 years spent enforcing immigration law as a Border Patrol agent, special agent and acting ICE director. My experience meant nothing. I was just fear-mongering, according to many.
I have said many things about immigration and the border since I retired in 2018 and I challenge anyone to find anything I have said that hasn’t come true.
There is a surge of illegal immigrants at our border right now and we have already lost control.
There are over 4,000 apprehensions a day and an additional 700 to 1,000 “got-aways,” according to the Border Patrol.
When Jeh Johnson was Homeland Security secretary under President Obama, he made the statement that 1,000 arrests a day along the border is a bad day. Well, we are at four times that number right now and will soon be at least five times that when Title 42 ends and probably much worse.
I believe we will see a surge of illegal immigrants at our southern border that will be unprecedented.
I believe we will see a surge of illegal immigrants at our southern border that will be unprecedented.
We must ask ourselves how we went from an historic low in crossings just a few weeks ago to a surge of this magnitude. It’s simple and I laid it out in that June 2020 op-ed.
When you make promises and create enticements such as ending the Remain in Mexico Program and allow people to enter the country to claim asylum and release them before a determination is made by a court – knowing that based on the data from DOJ that 88-90% of Central Americans that claim asylum at the border never get relief from the courts because they simply don’t qualify or don’t show up in court and you chose to release them anyway – they will begin to surge.
When you allow thousands of unaccompanied children to stream across the border and have the U.S. government pay to transport and unite them with family that are here illegally and who many times entered into a criminal conspiracy to have them smuggled here, they will come by the tens of thousands.
When you can no longer detain them but choose to release them as soon as possible, they will come.
When you promise mass amnesty and offer the reward of DACA with citizenship, they will come.
An email that was written by Tim Perry, chief of staff at ICE, to leadership at the agency was leaked on Feb. 12.
I’ve seen the email. It gave instructions to ICE leadership that included what Perry called DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas’ “vision.” The 19 bullet points contained in the email are self-explanatory. However, let me summarize them.
The current leadership of ICE is actively planning for an out-of-control situation at the border and already calling it a “surge.”
There are instructions to leaders to spend whatever money is needed to transport those who cross into the U.S. illegally into the interior of the country and release them as soon as possible.
They are instructed to end contracts for detention that actually have detention standards and try to contract with Target to get detention capacity at man camps that are typically used to house oil field workers and have no ICE detention standards at all.
Perry also instructs the leadership team that sworn officers and fences are to be avoided. After all, we can’t have anything that look like it is an enforcement operation because the progressives think that is bad.
The leadership team instructs that they want social services and mass release on ATD (Alternatives to Detention), even though the ICE website clearly shows about one-third of the people on ATD quickly abscond and only about 3% of people actually deported are on ATD. That’s because it takes three to seven years to deport someone who is not in custody.
They want everyone released despite the fact that the DOJ website says that eight or nine out of 10 Central Americans will not get asylum relief awarded by the courts because they don’t qualify or don’t show up in court.
They are also ignoring the fact, based on the DHS immigration lifecycle report, that less than 2% of family units that have been ordered removed since FY12, which is a few hundred thousand, actually left as ordered by a federal judge.
What happens to them now?
They will all get amnesty based on the new Biden amnesty bill despite the fact they entered the country illegally, lost their case, were order removed and became fugitives. Under the current administration, what is the punishment for ignoring a judge’s order and becoming a fugitive? Amnesty.
Yes, this email is all about processing people as quickly as possible and releasing them into the interior of the United States.
The email was all about assisting those who will commit immigration fraud and defy a court order.
This is about the U.S. government completing the criminal conspiracy of smuggling by delivering children to those who conspire with criminal cartels to have their children smuggled here – which is a felony.
The result? It’s an unsecured southern border, with cartels making millions a day and lives are being put at risk – in some cases being lost – making that dangerous journey, all because of those promises made by the Biden administration. Tragedy already struck in California when an SUV carrying over 25 recently smuggled people crashed and killed 13. This is just the beginning.
What’s missing in this leaked email? There is no mention of consequence and no deterrence even talked about to gain control of the border, even though it is written by and for Immigration and Customs ENFORCEMENT, a law enforcement agency.
There is absolutely no talk about enforcing our laws and ensuring that those who entered illegally are held accountable.
Illegal aliens will continue to put themselves in harm’s way to cross into our country because they know if they break our laws and hide out long enough, they will be rewarded.
They know that the Biden administration does not enforce our immigration laws and that ICE has been ordered to not arrest those who are just here illegally.
They know they can work here in the U.S. illegally because ICE can no longer conduct worksite investigations.
Remember this: When the Border Patrol is tied up with an unprecedented humanitarian crisis on the border it quickly becomes a national security issue.
During the last surge, when almost half of the Border Patrol was no longer on the border because they were taking care of thousands of family units, enough opioids came across the border to kill over 62,000 Americans.
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When the border is half protected that is when gang members, criminals and those who want to harm this country escape apprehension.
This is not just an immigration issue and a humanitarian issue, but also a national security issue.
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