Just hours before Title 42 is set to be lifted with predicted dire consequences along the U.S.-Mexico border, former President Donald Trump released a lengthy statement attacking his successor for allowing the previously secured border to turn into an open, cartel-run disaster.
"Over the past two years, Joe Biden has invited millions of illegal aliens to infiltrate our country in a gigantic unlawful invasion," the 45th president said. "Now, after announcing on April 1, 2022 that he would end my Title 42 protections at the border, and declining to appeal numerous court rulings, Biden is getting what he always wanted: the termination of the most effective border security policy in modern history."
Trump's statement continued:
By abolishing what remains of Title 42, Biden is willfully and deliberately triggering a cataclysm of illegal immigration like the world has never seen before.
The border nightmare is happening for a single reason: because illegal aliens know that if they break into our country unlawfully, Joe Biden will do everything possible to ensure that they are not removed, and are allowed to stay here indefinitely.
Trump also sounded off on the recently abandoned attempt by Senators Thom Tillis (R-NC) and Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ) to pass a mass-amnesty bill for DACA recipients, saying Biden's open border disaster is "one reason why the renewed push to ram through a catastrophic amnesty is so hideously destructive. Any form of amnesty now would be a historic disaster," Trump said. "It would reward Joe Biden’s lawlessness, it would reward the criminal cartels, it would reward child traffickers, and it would reward everyone who has broken the laws of our nation. Additionally, it would result in massively more illegal aliens and drugs pouring into American communities," Trump added.
"While the amnesty push is temporarily on hold for the lame duck, history shows that the amnesty lobby will be back with a vengeance in the new year," Trump warned. "Every Republican must understand that any so-called 'immigration reform' that gives Biden more resources will simply translate to even more releases. Biden inherited a flawless deportation system and he turned it into a mass-release machine," Trump, who recently announced his candidacy for president in 2024, reminded. "The border can ONLY be secured by confronting Biden’s lawless and criminal misconduct—and stopping his illicit crusade to set loose millions of illegal aliens into the interior."
Trump then prescribed "three crucial actions" for Congress where the House is set to be led by Republicans while Democrats have control of the Senate, likely stymying such efforts which are unlikely to be signed into law by President Biden from even being passed.
FIRST, Congress must pass a TOTAL and PERMANENT BAN on Joe Biden or any other president using taxpayer dollars to release illegal aliens into our country. The best place to do that is in a federal spending bill. That is why Republicans must do whatever it takes to prevent Mitch McConnell from passing his sellout Omnibus Bill.
Congress should also defund Joe Biden’s lawless ICE memorandum that gutted ICE and halted criminal enforcement.
SECOND, having established a federal prohibition on all releases of illegal aliens, Congress needs to make permanent ALL of my administration’s groundbreaking border security reforms that allowed us to achieve the most secure border in history and to rapidly deport anyone who trespassed across our border. My Title 42 policy must be legislatively restored and made permanent, making clear that it can be used in any circumstance the president deems necessary for border management. Likewise, Remain in Mexico, our Safe Third Country agreements, expedited removals, 212(f), and many other vital Trump policies must be enshrined in federal law.
This way, when I am president, and forever after, we will have every authority to secure the border—and when Open Borders radicals like Biden are in the White House, they will be prohibited by law from returning to catch-and-release.
THIRD, knowing just how willing Joe Biden and his deputies have been to violate and dismantle the laws of our nation, Congress must establish CRIMINAL PENALTIES for any senior official or political appointee who orders, aids, or abets the mass-release of illegal aliens into the United States. What these Open Borders extremists are doing to our country is criminal—and it should be punished as such.
"In the meantime, as we brace for a wave of illegal mass migration the likes of which has never been seen before, our prayers are with the brave Border Agents and ICE officers who Biden has so viciously betrayed," Trump said. "We thank them for their service, and we stand with them as they fight to keep bloodthirsty criminals, savage gangs, sadistic drug cartels, child and women smugglers, and human traffickers out of our country."
The end of Title 42 is predicted to cause even greater numbers of illegal immigrant crossings into the United States, to the tune of tens of thousands per day, into border communities that are already overwhelmed by migrants who cross illegally. The Biden administration, meanwhile, continues to ignore the problem, insist the border is not "open."
KJP: "The fact that the removal of Title 42 is happening in just a day or two doesn't mean that the border is open. It just doesn't mean that." pic.twitter.com/1XBmuqOMMV
— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) December 19, 2022