Florida’s Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis took a break from criticizing President Joe Biden for suggesting America might be hit with new lockdown efforts to criticize the new president’s handling of the border crisis.
In an interview with Fox News’s Judge Jeanine Pirro on Saturday, DeSantis called Biden’s reversal of former President Donald Trump’s immigration stance “disastrous.”
“It obviously is a disastrous change in policy,” DeSantis said. “Donald Trump had obviously the wall, which we all supported, but also safe third-party agreements, as well as ‘Remain in Mexico.’ And guess what happened? The border was under control. So, they’ve gone back on those policies, and they’ve created this crisis.”
“I think that this is intentional. I think this is ideological. And I think they’re getting bit by this politically now, “ DeSantis added. “But this was something they absolutely anticipated.”
“It’s a disastrous way to start an administration. I think most of the American people are going to be strongly opposed to this. And hopefully, they’ll reverse course.”
DeSantis noted that Florida was “ready” for the possible onslaught of illegal immigrants by banning “sanctuary cities” and mandating E-Verify.
“Biden is going in the absolute wrong direction,” DeSantis added. “Trump had it right at the border. Biden’s got it wrong.”
Also on Saturday, the Department of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas said immigrants were showing up at the border in “record numbers” – the point that he is now dispatching FEMA to help deal with the crisis.
Andrew Arthur, an analyst with the Center for Immigration Studies, which calls for stricter policing of America’s immigration laws, noted that the U.S. Border Patrol reported for February 100,441 “encounters” along the Mexican border. That was an increase from 78,442, or roughly 28 percent, from January.
Arthur said the Border Patrol defines “encounters” as the apprehensions of illegal migrants plus aliens who are considered inadmissible at U.S. ports of entry.
Of those February encounters, 96.5 percent) were aliens who were attempting to enter the country illegally.
Arthur pointed out, “You have to go all the way back to 2006 to find a February in which Border Patrol apprehensions were that high.”
“As expected, those numbers are sky-high, and the Biden administration is in denial about the causes,” Arthur added. “If this is not a “crisis”, I hate to think of what one would look like.”
“The situation at the border is bad and getting worse,” he concluded.
“Unless the Biden administration recognizes the deficiencies in U.S. law that encourage illegal entry (an unlikely scenario), the border will quickly devolve into a disaster.”
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