Former President Trump said the Biden administration is only citing the “immediate need” to build a border wall because President Biden is watching the United States be “invaded” by illegal migrants, warning that “terrorists” are “already” inside the country.
Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas on Wednesday said there was an “acute and immediate need” to waive dozens of federal laws in order to build a border wall in south Texas where illegal migration has surged.
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DHS justified the move due to “high illegal entry” — more than 245,000 migrant encounters have been recorded in the Rio Grande Valley Sector this year.
In an exclusive interview with Fox News Digital shortly after the DHS announcement, the former president — who leads the 2024 Republican primary field by a massive margin — blamed Biden for halting construction of the border wall and causing the crisis at the southern border.
“Biden sees our country is being invaded. What is he going to do about the 15 million people from prisons, from mental institutions, insane asylums, and terrorists that have already come into our country?” Trump said.
The number of people apprehended in FY 2023 between ports of entry at the southern border by Border Patrol who are on the FBI’s terror watchlist set a new high this year, with 151 arrests, compared to 98 in FY 2022 and 15 in FY 21.
Customs and Border Protection’s Office of Field Operations has encountered 505 persons at the northern and southern border ports of entry.
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The watch list, officially called the Terrorist Screening Dataset (TSDS) is the government’s database that “contains sensitive information on terrorist identities.”
The watch list originated to house information on known or suspected terrorists, but “has evolved over the last decade to include additional individuals who represent a potential threat to the United States, including known affiliates of watchlisted individuals,” CBP says.
While the number is minor in comparison to the millions of migrants who have arrived at the border in previous years, Republicans and former border officials have expressed worry about the number of people on the terror watch list who are getting past Border Patrol inspectors.
![Trump Reacts To President Biden's Change Of Heart On Border Wall - SurgeZirc US](https://surgezirc.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/Joe-Biden.png)
In fiscal year 2022, at least 599,000 illegal immigrants fled Border Patrol detention, up from more than 390,000 in fiscal year 2021.
“What has happened to our country?” Trump said, adding that the Biden administration needs to “go back to Trump policies.”
“He has to reinstate Remain in Mexico and Title 42. He has to do all of the other things that we were doing,” Trump said.
A Trump campaign spokesperson told Fox News Wednesday night that “President Trump is always right.”
“That’s why he built close to 500 miles of powerful new wall on the border and it would have been finished by now. Instead, Crooked Joe Biden turned our country into one giant sanctuary for dangerous criminal aliens,” the spokesperson said.