Former President Donald Trump says he’s leaning toward a visit to the U.S.-Mexico border, claiming Border Patrol and Immigration and Customs Enforcement are encouraging him to do so.
In an interview on Fox News’ “Justice With Judge Jeanine” Saturday night, Trump said he’d likely go “over the next few weeks.”
“Well, a lot of people want me to,” he said. “The Border Patrol and all of the people of ICE, they want me to go. “
“I really feel I sort of owe it to them, they’re great people, they’re doing an incredible job. It’s impossible now with what [the Biden administration has] done,” he added.
President Joe Biden rolled back a number of key measures the Trump administration had implemented to enforce border security, such as ending the so-called “catch and release” program, which allows illegal immigrants claiming asylum to be released into the United States as they await court hearings.
Since then, there’s been a sharp increase in illegal crossings, with over 100,000 recorded in February alone, The Epoch Times reported.
The influx of unaccompanied children, in particular, has prompted federal officials to open or convert at least eight facilities to hold them, including three convention centers.
“Thousands and thousands of people are coming up right now as we speak. And you’re gonna have millions of people pouring into our country, and it’s going to destroy our country,” he said.
“I don’t know what they’re doing, and they don’t know what they’re doing. It’s a very, very dangerous situation. I’d love not to be involved. Somebody else is supposed to be doing it.”
Biden “is supposed to go,” he said, adding: “I’m not looking to have a race, I’m looking to get a problem solved.”
“I’m not sure that I really should do it, other than the fact that I have such respect for the Border Patrol and for ICE,” he said.
In an interview on CBS News last week, Vice President Kamala Harris said she and Biden would visit the border “at some point.”
“At some point, absolutely we will go down to the border,” she said. “And I’ve been down to the border and our secretary of the Homeland Security, Alex Mayorkas, has been down there twice. Senior administration officials have been down there and yes, we will go.”
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