Mark Morgan, former Acting Commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Protection, told Fox News host Neil Cavuto late last week that the Biden administration is “facilitating illegal immigration” and that border authorities are already seeing crisis-level numbers under the new administration.
“Look, back in 2019, one of the driving factors behind the unprecedented crisis was the fact that we have these significant loopholes, one of them being if you made it to [our] border, you’re going to be released to the United States, never to be heard from again, that’s not Right or Left thing, facts support that,” Morgan said. “And under the Trump administration, that was cut off in large part due to the Migrant Protection Protocol, the remain in Mexico program as most know it, and now, not only has that program been rescinded, but those that were already enrolled in the program, those are the people now that are being actively allowed in the United States, that all they’re doing is they’re coming to a port of entry and now they’re being allowed in — and real quick, what’s important to that is, it’s not just what’s [happening] on the front end that they’re being released. But he’s also on the back end removed the ICE’s authority to remove them lawfully once they stay here illegally.”
Morgan noted that once the illegal immigrants enter the U.S., if they don’t show up for their court dates then there is nothing that will happen to them because ICE is “going to be prohibited … from going after them and detaining them and trying to remove them.”
Morgan said what the Biden administration is doing represented a “new era” where the administration “is facilitating illegal immigration in this country.” Morgan noted that Obama’s CBP head, Jeh Johnson, once said that if there were 1,000 illegal immigrants apprehended at the border per day, that was a “bad day,” and then noted that the current numbers under the Biden administration are “3,500 a day.”
WATCH:
TRANSCRIPT:
NEIL CAVUTO, FOX NEWS HOST: You probably know and heard yesterday that asylum seekers who, during the Trump administration, to litigate their case, had to sort of chill out in Mexico while that was being done. Well, now they’re allowed to come into the United States and chill out until illegal authorities can score a court appointment for them. The problem with that, and why the Trump administration had changed it so that they had to wait it out in Mexico is that a lot of them never showed up for those appointments. And that is the concern right now, no doubt of my next guest, Mark Morgan. Mark is the former acting custom Border Protection Commissioner — joins us right now. Mark, what do you think of this plan and the risks that you think are out there?
MARK MORGAN, FORMER ACTING BORDER PATROL COMMISSIONER: Neil, you just stated the biggest risk of all. Look, back in 2019, one of the driving factors behind the unprecedented crisis was the fact that we have these significant loopholes, one of them being if you made it to [our] border, you’re going to be released to the United States, never to be heard from again, that’s not Right or Left thing, facts support that. And under the Trump administration, that was cut off in large part due to the Migrant Protection Protocol, the remain in Mexico program as most know it, and now, not only has that program been rescinded, but those that were already enrolled in the program, those are the people now that are being actively allowed in the United States, that all they’re doing is they’re coming to a port of entry and now they’re being allowed in — and real quick, what’s important to that is, it’s not just what’s [happening] on the front end that they’re being released. But he’s also on the back end removed the ICE’s authority to remove them lawfully once they stay here illegally. So catch and release is back on, and they’re actually creating the next, you know, wave of people in a few years [who are] going to say, where’s my amnesty?
CAVUTO: Where do they go and who monitors them then? … are they restricted to a certain area or areas? Does anyone monitor, and I mean, 25,000, that’s a lot of people right now in the first wave, how do we keep track?
MORGAN: We do not. That’s the answer. You know, there’s been talks about alternatives to detention. But what’s happening now, that’s not even being used. And we know that that’s a failure anyway, whether they put an ankle bracelet on, they just cut them off, and they don’t show up. But this is very important, your question is spot on, they’re going to be allowed in, there’s really no monitoring, and now, because of the new enforcement restrictions, ICE is going to be prohibited, if they don’t show up for a hearing, they’re going to be prohibited from going after them and detaining them and trying to remove them. I mean, they are absolutely — we’re seeing a new era where our country is facilitating illegal immigration in this country.
CAVUTO: Do you know, and it’s still early in the process and I grant you … that we have seen an uptick on people sneaking over the border — [I know] Lindsey Graham was famously on the border in Arizona taking a look at holes in the wall that aren’t going to be patched up. That is just sort of like a guinea pig invitation for those to come right in. Do we have any reliable data on how many are taking advantage of this sort of limbo in the meantime?
MORGAN: Yeah, so … I wouldn’t characterize what you’ve seen as an uptick. [I’m categorizing] it, since the election, the numbers have skyrocketed. We’re getting three, we’re outputting 3,500 a day at the southwest border. Remember, it was Jeh Johnson, the former Secretary under then President Obama and Vice President Biden, where he said 1,000 was a bad day. I didn’t agree much on his immigration policies, but that I agreed with, a 1,000 [is] a bad day, we’re at 3,500 a day. That’s why I say the crisis has already begun. It’s already here of those numbers. And it’s a direct result of the open border strategies that this administration within a few weeks has already enacted.