Fearing a reversal of four years of work to curb illegal immigration and to end the Obama-era practice of “catch and release,” top Homeland Security officials on Tuesday doubled down on their warning that open border policies pushed by Joe Biden would result in an “invasion” of migrants from Mexico.
“What has been accomplished would be undone … we’re going to see an invasion,” said acting Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Mark Morgan.
He added, “I was doing a radio hit a little while ago. This wasn’t my word. It was the host of the radio show. ‘It sounds like it should be a tsunami coming.’ And I said, ‘Yes, that’s an even better word than invasion, but that is exactly right.’”
Border officials are raising concerns that Biden, as president, would be aided by a pro-illegal immigration Congress and reverse the improvements in migration into the United States and return to the Obama policies of inviting illegal immigrants into the country.
Morgan said that the administration’s war on sanctuary cities, the elimination of catch and release policies, and the tightening of who is allowed welfare would end under the Democrats, signaling anew that the country is open for migrants who want to skip the line and come in illegally.
“Who wouldn’t come? Why wouldn’t you come?” he said on a call with a handful of reporters.
Morgan highlighted what his team has done so far in pushing for continued anti-illegal immigration policies:
- Some 450 miles of new border wall will be built by the end of this year, with a total of 733 strategically placed in a second term.
- The release of migrants into the country, some 400,000 in fiscal 2019, has been cut to less than 15,000. And, he said, most of those were for humanitarian reasons.
- The “flow” of illegal immigrants to the border is down 75%.
- And the number of families trying to cross has dropped 87%.
“Truth is and the facts are this administration has stepped up,” he said.
