Illegal immigrants from around the world, spurred by President Biden’s promises to open the border, are storming through and spreading the coronavirus to U.S. officials, according to an investigation on the border.
And those turned back are growing angry and agitated and some, notably Cuban immigrants, are mapping new crossing plans where the border is lightly staffed.
Todd Bensman, a senior national security fellow for the Center for Immigration Studies, said on Tuesday from the border that illegal immigrants started to surge even before Biden took office and have increased their efforts since he replaced Trump.
“A lot of them are getting through,” he said in a CIS Zoom conference hosted by Inside Sources.
But since the new policies and suspension of Trump rules have been slow to get to the border officials, many caught crossing are being returned, and they are growing angry.
“Sometimes, they fight. They are so mad that they are not being welcomed in,” said Bensman. “It’s not very Biden-like,” he said is how they feel.
Biden has signed five immigration-related executive orders so far and plans to release more on Friday. Only one so far, ending deportations from inside the United States, has been delayed by a court. The rest include stopping construction of the border wall and ending Trump’s policy of keeping illegal immigrants in Mexico until their papers clear.
Bensman, who is the author of the forthcoming America’s Covert Border War: The Untold Story of the Nation’s Battle to Prevent Jihadist Infiltration, also said that many border officials have caught the virus or had to quarantine after interacting with the migrants.
Illegal immigrants, he said, “don’t seem particularly concerned about carrying COVID into the next country.”
As he’s investigated the border situation in recent days, Bensman said, “I was speaking with … a number of Border Patrol last night who said everybody they know have COVID or are in quarantine and/or have COVID and have been taken off the line. So, the ranks are pretty thin out there.”
He added, “There are a lot of sick people, migrants, coming in with COVID, infecting our people.”
