EXCLUSIVE: Border officials working under the Biden administration tell Fox News that the president and his surrogates are wrong not to call the border situation a ‘crisis’.
“A week ago I would not have called it a crisis. Today it meets the definition. We are overwhelmed. We do not have the means to stop the cartels from bringing in illegal aliens, bringing in drugs, that’s why we are a crisis, “Brandon Judd, president of the National Border Patrol Board, told Fox News.
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A senior CBP official who spoke on condition of anonymity confirmed Judd’s sentiment.
Honduran migrants are sitting in the bed of a police vehicle after being detained on Tuesday, January 19, 2021 in Chiquimula, Guatemala. (AP Photo / Oliver de Ros)
“The president understands that this is a crisis and that’s why he said migrants ‘do not come’,” the official told Fox News.
Meanwhile, President Biden on Tuesday said he did not plan to travel to the southern border “at the moment” amid a huge increase in migrants and overwhelming facilities.
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Republicans blamed Biden for the boom after he reversed a number of Trump-era immigration restrictions he considered inhumane, including ending the “Stay-in-Mexico” policy and restoring “capture and -release”. Biden’s immigration agenda includes a path to citizenship for 11 million undocumented immigrants.
Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas described the border situation on Tuesday as “difficult” but, like the White House, refrained from calling it a crisis.
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“The situation on the southwestern border is difficult,” Mayorkas said. “We work 24 hours a day to manage it and we will continue to do so. That is our job. We are making progress and carrying out our plan. It will take time and we will not waver in our commitment to succeed. not. “
Fox News’ Morgan Phillips and Adam Shaw contributed to this report.