As the crisis at the border goes from bad to worse, more and more attention is being paid to what policies have enabled the crisis to grow so dramatically. Particularly, border hawks have drawn attention to the Trump Administration policies rescinded by Biden, a decision they claim led to the opening of the border and a worsening of the crisis.
Such is what Lora Ries, the Director of the Heritage Foundation’s Border Security and Immigration Center, claimed to Fox News Digital. The Heritage Foundation is a highly influential conservative-leaning think tank based in DC.
Ries, explaining what policies, in particular, have led to border woes, said that there were certain Trump policies Biden ended that have led to millions of illegal entries. Ries told Fox News Digital, “By ending Remain in Mexico, encouraging asylum fraud, and mass paroling illegal aliens, Biden has provided entry to millions of inadmissible aliens.”
Continuing, Ries explained what made the situation even worse, noting that the illegal immigrants caught crossing the border are generally released rather than detained. She said, “By mass releasing them instead of following the mandatory detention statutes, Biden has allowed the millions to remain in the U.S. longer, knowing it is much harder to deport those who are not in detention.”
Ries then accused Biden of “intentionally” unsecuring the border with his reversals of effective Trump-era polices. “By every measure, Biden took a secure border and intentionally unsecured it,” Ries said. Ries continued, “His policies have resulted in historic numbers of: inadmissible alien encounters and releases, terror watchlist hits, unaccompanied alien children, migrant deaths, border search and rescues, and American drug deaths, largely from fentanyl coming from Mexico.”
Further, Ries spoke about the massive asylum fraud problem and how it could be fixed by returning to Trump policies. Beginning, Ries explained the problem, saying, “Preventing asylum fraud includes requiring aliens to apply for protection in the first safe country in which they enter, not country shop to come to the U.S., and returning them to that first safe country.”
Continuing, Ries said, “It also includes fully implementing Remain in Mexico (and Canada), while getting back to the traditional U.S. Refugee Admissions process, where foreigners apply for refugee protection overseas, providing adjudicators better proximity to applicants’ documents and histories, and more time to thoroughly investigate and vet applicants.”
Ries wasn’t the only one to call out Biden. Another Heritage Foundation Border Security and Immigration Center personality, Mark Morgan, a visiting fellow there, told Fox News Digital that the current president “created chaos” with his border stances. Morgan said, “The magnitude of what he did created chaos at the border,”
Morgan also noted that the policy requiring supposed refugees stop in the first safe country makes far more sense than letting all of them travel to the United States. “We should encourage everyone to seek relief in that first safer country rather than coordinate with the cartels and risk your life and your safety and your finances to then forum shop and try to get to the United States,” Morgan said.
Continuing, Morgan explained why Trump’s famous Remain in Mexico Policy was effective, telling Fox News Digital, “The Remain in Mexico program didn’t deny anybody asylum. They simply said that you’re going to wait in Mexico while you’re going through asylum. We’re not going to release you in the United States to never be heard from again.”
Trump, for his part, has pledged to do everything possible to defend the border. Watch him explain his stance on the border and how it could be fixed here:
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