WASHINGTON—Mark Morgan, Tom Homan, and Lora Ries issued the following statements Monday evening in response to the latest border apprehension numbers released by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). According to court filings, Customs and Border Protection (CBP) recorded more than 234,000 apprehensions in April—the highest monthly number ever recorded in U.S. history. The last time monthly apprehensions exceeded 200,000 was March 2000. Under President Biden, it has happened four times. More than 117,000 illegal aliens were released into the U.S. in April:
Mark Morgan, Heritage visiting fellow and former CBP acting commissioner: “Joe Biden and his willing accomplices like Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas have purposefully created the worst border crisis in American history. More than 234,000 apprehensions—the highest monthly number in U.S. history—is simply the new normal under Joe Biden. This administration inherited the most secure border in American history, and knowingly—willfully—choose instead to spark a crisis that has caused chaos and devastation not just at our border, but throughout our country.
“Secretary Mayorkas, in particular, should be ashamed of himself. He has implemented and defended this administration’s open-borders policies, and led the charge to end effective border security policies, like construction of the border wall system, Remain in Mexico, and asylum cooperative agreements. He instructed ICE not to deport the vast majority of illegal aliens in our country. And he continues to lie to the American people about crisis. He has no honor left, and he must resign—or be impeached.”
Lora Ries, director of Heritage’s Border Security and Immigration Center and former acting DHS deputy chief of staff: “Joe Biden’s border crisis is creating devastating consequences for our country. Because he has embraced open borders, record amounts of drugs are pouring into our communities, ruining lives and destroying families. More than 100,000 Americans last year died from drug overdoses, a new record driven largely by fentanyl coming across the border. He has exposed our Border Patrol agents to tens of thousands of illegal aliens carrying COVID. He has given operational control of our border to the cartels, effectively turning the border into a war zone. And he has made a mockery of our laws, releasing hundreds of thousands of illegal aliens into the country, most of whom are now here to stay. This number of apprehensions will soon break the back of our Border Patrol. The breaking point is coming—soon.”
Tom Homan, Heritage visiting fellow and former acting ICE director: “I have never seen a president treat our Constitution and our laws with such contempt and disdain as Joe Biden has. This administration could secure our border in a week if they wanted to. They don’t. They would rather treat illegal aliens better than their own citizens, because they see a perceived political benefit in doing so. The American people need to make it unequivocally clear how wrong that calculation is.
“How many more Americans need to die from fentanyl overdoses? How many more migrants need to be assaulted or murdered along the journey to the border? How many more millions of dollars do the cartels need to make? How much worse does this crisis have to get before Joe Biden wakes the hell up and sees what he is doing to the country he swore he would protect and defend? I fear he never will. It is now on Congress and the American people to hold this feckless administration accountable. We must.”
