More than 200 retired Department of Homeland Security (DHS) officials signed onto an open letter endorsing former President Donald Trump, arguing he’s the only candidate who will enforce border security.
The Biden-Harris administration enacted policies that “systematically dismantled” a border enforcement apparatus that prevented crime at the U.S.-Mexico border and across the country, according to numerous retired Border Patrol, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and other DHS officials who have spent a career in the field. Signatories to the letter included retired Border Patrol chief Rodney Scott and former ICE chief Tom Homan, among many others.
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These border enforcement professionals laid out their case as to why they believe the border crisis got so incredibly bad during the current administration, and how things were different in the previous administration.
“President Trump respected the experience of career border security professionals and listened to our advice,” the letter stated. “When border security experts explained to President Trump how illegal immigration empowers the cartels to control who and what enters our home, he listened and acted.”
“The Trump administration supported policies and programs that reduced illegal immigration, instilled integrity into our legal immigration system and ensured that the U.S. government was doing all we could to control who and what entered our homeland. The borders of the U.S. were never more secure than they were during the Trump administration,” the letter continues.
Upon entering office, the Biden-Harris administration undertook 296 executive actions on immigration, with 89 of those orders specifically reversing or beginning the process of undoing Trump’s immigration policies. The administration went on to undo a number of major Trump initiatives concerning border security, such as ending border wall construction and shutting down the Remain in Mexico program.
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What followed was a historic flow of illegal immigration through the U.S.-Mexico border. The number of illegal border crossings in fiscal year 2024 were the second worst in U.S. history — only surpassed by fiscal year 2023, according to data tracked by Customs and Border Protection (CBP).
Scott, who led Border Patrol from February 2020 to August 2021, previously told the Daily Caller News Foundation that the Biden administration tightly cracked down on him and his colleagues from speaking out about the border crisis.
Since taking over the re-election mantle from President Joe Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris has attempted to rebrand herself as more of a border hawk, with her campaign boasting ads that feature the border wall and a pledge to hire more Border Patrol agents if she wins in November.
Trump’s support from border security professionals isn’t limited to those who have since retired from service. Earlier in October, the Border Patrol union formally endorsed the Republican candidate, with the president of the National Border Patrol Council saying that a victory for Harris would mean “every city, every community in this great country, is going to go to hell.”
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The letter brought forward by the retired border professionals echoed similar sentiments.
[U]nder VP Harris’ watch, idealist political appointees with zero border security experience were empowered to implement disastrous and deadly border security policy for the United States,” the letter states. “The devastating results have handed complete control of our border to the cartels, provided them with astronomical record profits, ballooned legal immigration backlogs, and have left millions of illegal aliens in the country.”
“Assuming you care about border security as much as we do, the choice is clear. President Trump is the only candidate that we can trust to secure our nation’s borders,” the letter concluded.
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First published by the Daily Caller News Foundation.