Over 40 sheriffs condemned the Biden-Harris administration’s handling of the border crisis in a letter sent Tuesday, and further warned that more migrants would devastate small-town America.
The letter, signed by sheriffs in Pennsylvania, Washington and Illinois among other states, accuses the Biden-Harris administration of letting in 10 to 15 million illegal immigrants over the last four years, saying that the U.S. deserves a president that “prioritizes the safety and security of the American people” by securing the border from illegals and drugs. U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has encountered over 7 million migrants at the southern border since president Joe Biden took office in January 2021, according to CBP statistics. (RELATED: Biden Admin To End Parole Program For Hundreds Of Thousands Of Migrants)
“None of the 19,500 American cities, towns or villages, is safe from this crisis, and no community is immune to the impact,” the letter said. “Every town is a border town. The President alone can act to fix this crisis. The president can suspend or restrict the entry of non-citizens if it is deemed in the national interest, proclaim a national emergency along the border, and redirect federal funds to construct a border wall. The Biden-Harris Administration has done none of these. And we are seeing the consequences.”
Migrants and asylum seekers wait to be processed by the Border Patrol between fences at the US-Mexico border seen from Tijuana, Baja California state, Mexico, on June 5, 2024. (Photo by Guillermo Arias / AFP)
Sheriff James Custer of Fayette County, Pennsylvania, told the Daily Caller News Foundation that a surge in fentanyl has rocked his county of approximately 130,000 people.
“I’ve seen this trend has been going on over the last three years, the fentanyl crisis, that has come across our southern border … our overdose deaths rose each year,” Custer told the DCNF. “Now we are in a slight decline this year, but we have several deaths pending toxicology results.”
There were 107,543 drug overdoses in 2023 across the U.S., according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in May. Fentanyl was estimated to be involved in 74,702 of the cases that year.
“As your sheriffs, we stand ready to do our part in protecting our communities, but we need the President to act,” the letter reads. “The lives of Americans depend on it.”
Sheriff Bob Songer of Klickitat County, Washington, accused the Biden administration of treason by allowing illegal immigrants to stay and not doing enough to stem the tide of migrants.
“I think the open borders is a violation,” Songer told the DCNF. “Personally, I think both the Biden administration and their administrative staff ought to be charged with treason, they’ve broken this country to where we don’t have a border. Yes, it happens in small town America, just as anywhere else.”
Springfield, Ohio, which has a population of just over 58,000 as of 2022, was one of the first towns to make headlines over its sudden influx of Haitian migrants. Between 12,000 and 20,000 migrants have poured into the town since 2021.
“As sheriffs, our first duty is to protect the citizens we serve,” the letter reads. “But today, we find ourselves confronted by a growing crisis that threatens the very fabric of our country and its sovereignty: open-border policies.”
Charleroi, Pennsylvania, a town of only around 4,000 residents, had at least 2,000 predominantly Haitian migrants move in, according to City Journal Oct. 7. Migrant students in the town overwhelmed the school system, with spending to teach English quadrupling from the 2020-2021 school year to the 2024-2025 year.
Biden declared victory in June when he signed an executive order raising asylum standards and lowering the amount of migrants who can get sanctuary. Democratic Illinois Rep. Lauren Underwood called Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas’ enforcement of the southern border “historic” despite the massive increases under his watch.
Songer said so far his county of approximately 22,000 hasn’t experienced any migrant crime. However, he added that if migrant criminals should come to his county, he will not be lenient.
“I’m not going to put up with that crap,” Songer told the DCNF. “I don’t care what our governor says about sanctuary crap. The bottom line is, if they’re illegal in our county and they’re committing the law violation, we’re going to deal with them, and they’re going to hit the jail.”
Over half of American voters support the mass deportation of illegal immigrants, according to a September Ipsos poll. A YouGov poll found that 87% of voters think immigration is an “important” issue in the election.
Custer said that voters in his county have a lot of anxiety on what would happen to their communities if immigration continued unimpeded.
“It would be unsustainable. I just don’t see us having the resources to handle an influx of migrants,” Custer told the DCNF.
The White House and the Department of Homeland Security did not respond to the DCNF’s request for comment.
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