Trump: Wall, 'Remain in Mexico' Produced Strong Southern Border (Newsmax)
By Charlie McCarthy | Wednesday, 21 September 2022 08:31 AM EDT
Former President Donald Trump reminded people that an all-time southern border crisis did not exist under his administration.
U.S. Customs and Border Patrols statistics this week show that authorities encountered 203,597 migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border in August — the sixth straight month of more than 200,000.
That meant the number of migrants reported along the southern border in fiscal year 2022 was an all-time high of more than 2 million.
"Remember, just two years ago we had the strongest and best Southern Border in U.S. history," Trump posted on Truth Social early Wednesday morning. "They weren't coming up and through because they knew that it was going to be very hard to come in, and stay in. That's the best Border policy of them all, by far. I built the Wall, and then added more. Remain in Mexico, we said. It all worked!!!"
Trump's Remain in Mexico policy — officially called Migrant Protection Protocols — forced migrants to remain south of the border to await their asylum hearing in U.S. immigration court. President Joe Biden ended that policy in August.
The Republican National Committee, citing the Biden administration's "dereliction of duty" at the border, has made a call for midterm voters to remember the border — and their families' safety.
"Because of Biden and Democrats' dereliction of duty and open border policies, gangs are thriving, drugs are pouring into our neighborhoods, and our communities are less safe," RNC Chair Ronna McDaniel wrote in a statement Monday. "This November, Biden's border crisis will be top of mind as voters worry about the safety and security of loved ones."
Biden said Tuesday that it's "not rational" to send immigrants who illegally crossed the border back to countries such as Cuba, Nicaragua, or Venezuela.
Approximately 5 million migrants have crossed the southern border since the Biden administration took over the White House in January 2021.
Republican Govs. Ron DeSantis, R-Fla., Greg Abbott, R-Texas, and Doug Ducey, R-Ariz., have transported migrants to blue jurisdictions in protest of Biden's unwillingness to sufficiently police the southern border.