The White House has continually pointed to Congress’ failure to pass President Joe Biden’s “day one” immigration plan as the chief reason for the border crisis. But the administration has failed to mention that the president also rolled back numerous hawkish Trump-era policies on his first day in office.
Biden signed a series of executive orders on Jan. 20, 2021, ending the Trump administration’s border wall construction and revoking the previous president’s deportation orders, while his Department of Homeland Security (DHS) issued a 100-day moratorium on all deportations. Illegal immigration has surged to record levels under Biden, with Border Patrol recording more than 2.2 million encounters at the southern border in fiscal year 2022 and more than 2 million in fiscal year 2023, according to federal data. (RELATED: Border Patrol Agents Quietly Support Texas’ Move To Seize Area Of Border)
In December alone, there were more than 300,000 illegal migrant encounters at the southern border, marking the highest month on record, according to Fox News.
White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre has asserted that Congress needs to fix the situation by adopting Biden’s day one immigration plan.
“Let me just say, first of all, this is why the president is having negotiations with senators, Republicans and Democrats, for the past couple of weeks to deal with what’s going on as it relates to border security. This is why the president on day one put forward a comprehensive immigration plan that for more than three years now Congress didn’t do anything about, but he’s appreciative that we’re having these conversations in the Senate,” Jean-Pierre told reporters Jan. 22.
On Jan. 18, Jean-Pierre shared a similar message in response to House Speaker Mike Johnson, who said now isn’t the time for immigration reform because it would be “complicated” and slow.
“Making sure that we take care of our border is not too complicated. It’s not. It’s not. If people come together in good faith, as they’ve been doing in the Senate, we can get this done. We can get this done,” Jean-Pierre said during the press briefing of Johnson’s remarks.
“And let’s not forget, the President actually put forth a comprehensive immigration proposal almost three years ago. Very — almost three years ago. We had three years — three years to work on something. If that was what the — Speaker Johnson is concerned about, we had three years to work on it,” she added.
US President Joe Biden speaks with members of the US Border Patrol in front of the US-Mexico border fence in El Paso, Texas, on January 8, 2023. (Photo by JIM WATSON/AFP via Getty Images)
Biden rescinded the Trump-era order to withhold federal funding from sanctuary jurisdictions across the country and to remove illegal aliens from the country. He also ended the emergency declaration former President Donald Trump used to fund the construction of a wall along the southern border.
Trump’s acting DHS Secretary Chad Wolf was at the helm of the agency when many of the policies that Biden reversed were put in place.
“President Biden campaigned about letting folks in,” Wolf said, adding “Combine that with telling ICE removal officers and ICE attorneys that just simply crossing the border illegally is no longer grounds for removal,” Wolf told the DCNF.
Wolf also pointed to when Biden’s DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas issued a memo on Sept. 30, 2021 telling ICE that “the fact an individual is a removable noncitizen therefore should not alone be the basis of an enforcement action against them.”
“Doing all the different things that did all contributed and all sends a signal that the border is open and you’re free to come over,” Wolf said.
The Biden administration in recent days has pressured the state of Texas to stand down from an area of the southern border it seized in Eagle Pass, Texas. The state has erected razor wire in the area to deter illegal crossings, but the Supreme Court ruled Monday that federal authorities can take it down.
Texas has continued to place more wire in the area and is refusing the Biden administration’s demands to relinquish control over Shelby Park in Eagle Pass.
The White House didn’t respond to the DCNF’s request for comment.
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