Joe Biden’s immigration agenda along with the executive orders he’s already signed are creating a “perfect storm” of conditions at the border for a surge, says Tom Homan, former ICE director.
Biden’s halt to deportations, his dismantling of the “Remain in Mexico” policy and the cancellation of border wall construction are sending powerful signals to the hundreds of thousands of people hoping to enter the U.S. that our borders are a fiction and that entering the United States is just a matter of showing up at the border.
The president is playing with fire and doesn’t appear to have any idea of the forces he is about to unleash.
The undoing of the “remain in Mexico” policy, along with reorienting Immigration and Customs Enforcement to prioritize national security threats rather than convicting illegal immigrants with low-level drug offenses, simple assaults and DUIs, signals a major shift in the U.S. immigration process.
“He [Biden] created a perfect storm for a surge at the border,” said Tom Homan, retired ICE director and Fox News contributor, detailing the constraints placed on Customs and Border Patrol and ICE officials on processing and vetting immigrants at ports of entry.
Homan knows what he’s talking about. He was there on the border in 2017 when the last surge of migrants threatened to overwhelm border facilities. He saw the humanitarian tragedy and sees the same thing happening again.
And Biden is eagerly inviting it.
But the coupling of increased immigration and new ICE protocols is raising alarm among former Trump officials, who say the new approach weakens border enforcement.
“This policy pretty much dismantled their enforcement operations,” Homan said. “This is a terrible policy for public safety. It’s anti-enforcement policy, the worst policy I’ve seen in my 35 years of enforcing immigration law.”
The controversial memo from Acting ICE Director Tae Johnson — which was released by the Washington Post on Feb. 7, draws up new procedures: “Generally, these convictions would not include drug based crimes (less serious offenses), simple assault, DUI, money laundering, property crimes, fraud, tax crimes, solicitation, or charges without convictions.”
Homan referred to it as an “anti-enforcement policy” but it’s more than that. It’s an open invitation to show up at the border with a hard-luck story and be almost immediately cleared for entry into the U.S. Biden’s announcement that the U.S. would accept 25,000 asylum seekers who had been waiting in Mexico until their cases were heard by a judge could very well set off a mad dash to the border by others.
Homan believes the number of incidents will increase, because “it’s no longer illegal to be illegal in the United States.” That sums it up perfectly. In their bid to create a “humane and moral system” the Biden administration has created a humanitarian disaster.