Former Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Sec. Jeh Johnson who served in the Obama administration said Thursday on Fox News that President Joe Biden’s border crisis is “bigger than anything we’ve ever seen.”
Authorities have encountered more than 1.8 million illegal migrants between October 2022 and August, according to federal data. Several states and cities nationwide have declared a state of emergency, including Chicago, San Diego, New York City, Massachusetts and others.
A 2022 ICE memo from the Biden administration limits what arrest can be made, with enforcement solely allowed for illegal aliens deemed to be a threat to national security, border security and public safety in order to “preserve limited government resources.”(RELATED: EXCLUSIVE: GOP Reps Unveil Bill Calling On Mayorkas To Implement Northern Border Security Plan)
Fox’s Dana Perino expressed concerns that militants have infiltrated the United States via the southern border. Johnson said that while he was in office, the DHS “began an effort to more readily identify migrants of high concern before they even got close to the southern border.”
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“There are a lot of people entering our southern border right now, thousands and thousands. It’s a hemispheric move north, bigger than anything we’ve ever seen. And the challenge for our Border Patrol for our Customs, for DHS, for the FBI, is to try to keep up. Unfortunately, as you know, the system is broken, it’s horribly backlogged. And there are a whole lot of people entering this country who we cannot identify.”
Current DHS Sec. Alejandro Mayorkas said weeks ago there is an “immediate need” to resume construction on the border wall in the Rio Grande Valley of Texas due to the high traffic of illegal migrants crossing. Biden pledged prior to taking office that he would not allow the border wall to be built.