Former President Trump lashed out at President Biden over his administration’s immigration policies as the U.S. faces an influx of migrants at the southern border, accusing current officials in a fiery statement of being “in way over their heads and taking on water fast.”
Trump claimed in a statement Sunday that his administration “handed the Biden Administration the most secure border in history.”
“All they had to do was keep this smooth-running system on autopilot. Instead, in the span of a just few weeks, the Biden Administration has turned a national triumph into a national disaster. They are in way over their heads and taking on water fast,” Trump said.
The former president specifically targeted Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, who appeared on a slate of Sunday morning political news shows earlier in the day to defend the Biden administration’s immigration policies.
Mayorkas, speaking on Fox, NBC, ABC and CNN, said that the southern U.S. border remains “closed,” while emphasizing that the U.S. will not deport unaccompanied minors.
“Now is not the time to come. Do not come, the journey is dangerous. We are building safe, orderly and humane ways to address the needs of vulnerable children. Do not come,” Mayorkas said on ABC’s “This Week.”
He also on Sunday rejected claims that Border Patrol agents were under a “gag order” amid questions about press access to migrant facilities.
Trump slammed Mayorkas as “pathetic,” “clueless,” “self-satisfied” and “incapable of leading” the Department of Homeland Security in his statement adding that Mayorkas’s Sunday show appearances were a “national disgrace.” Trump called for “an immediate congressional investigation” into what he called a “gag order on our Nation’s heroic border agents and ICE officers.”
“It’s clear they are engaged in a huge cover-up to hide just how bad things truly are. The only way to end the Biden Border Crisis is for them to admit their total failure and adopt the profoundly effective, proven Trump policies,” Trump claimed, calling on Biden immigration officials to complete the former president’s signature border wall and alleging that “our country is being destroyed.”
Mayorkas on Sunday blamed a lack of press access on concerns over the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
“Border Patrol agents are focused on operations, on securing the border, on addressing the needs of vulnerable children. We are not focused on ride-alongs right now,” he said.
Biden last week urged migrants not to make the journey to the U.S., as his administration undergoes an influx at the border.
The number of migrant children in U.S. custody has passed 15,000, CBS News reported Saturday.