Bensman, author of last year’s Overrun: How Joe Biden Unleashed the Greatest Border Crisis in American History, explains that the administration’s policies opened the border wide for illegal aliens. Anticipating a surge of illegal aliens resulting from the May termination of Title 42, the Biden administration funneled hundreds of thousands of illegal aliens into the country by enabling them to pre-schedule their “legal” entry through the CBP One app. A surge at the border occurred nonetheless. The overwhelming numbers of illegal border crossings and overworked agents also resulted in the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) losing track of 85,000 unaccompanied alien children.
Mayorkas Dodges on How Many Migrants Are Released, ‘Would Not Surprise Me’ if It’s over 70% of Encounters
On Thursday’s broadcast of the Fox News Channel’s “Special Report,” Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas responded to a question on how many of the 300,000 people encountered at the border were released by stating that “we are limited in our detention capacity by the funding that Congress provides to us.” But he wouldn’t be surprised if the percentage released is north of 70%, but “when individuals are released, they are released into immigration enforcement proceedings. They are on alternatives to detention.”
Host Bret Baier asked, “Obviously, President Biden has just completed his third year in office. How many illegal immigrants has DHS released into the country from the border in that time?”
Mayorkas responded, “Bret, let me correct a misunderstanding. When somebody enters the country, we place them in immigration enforcement proceedings pursuant to immigration law. And if their claim for relief, their claim to remain in the United States succeeds, then, by law, they are able to stay here. And if it doesn’t succeed, we remove them.”
Baier then asked, “Just ballpark it, is it more than 500,000? More than 1 million? 2 million?”
Mayorkas answered, “Bret, it’s more than — it’s well more than a million per year, and it is precisely why we have said, since day one of this administration, that the immigration system that is so fundamentally broken needs to be fixed.”
Baier then asked, “But let’s say, last month, you had a new record set, 300,000 encounters by CBP. How many of those were released from detentions into the country?”
Mayorkas then said, “Bret, we are limited in our detention capacity by the funding that Congress provides to us. We have returned and removed a historic number of individuals. The numbers that we experienced in December [are] precisely why I traveled down to Mexico to speak with the president of Mexico, to encourage them that they enforce their southern border, that they enforce their laws along the migratory path, so that we reduce the number of individuals whom we encounter on our southern border. This is a regional challenge that requires regional solutions. It’s precisely why I traveled down to Mexico last week.”
Baier then followed up, “Would it surprise you to hear that CBP sources say that currently, they are releasing more than 70% of the migrants crossing every day, and sometimes more than that number? Higher than 70%, would that surprise you?”
Mayorkas responded, “It would not surprise me at all. I know the data. And I will tell you that, when individuals are released, they are released into immigration enforcement proceedings. They are on alternatives to detention. And we have returned or removed a record number of individuals. We are enforcing the laws that Congress has passed.”
Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett
Chicago Alderman: We Invited Migrants by Being a Sanctuary, ‘Nobody’ Thought It Would Lead to Current Situation
On Thursday’s broadcast of the Fox News Channel’s “America Reports,” Chicago Alderman Brian Hopkins acknowledged that city leaders did send a message that anyone could come by being a sanctuary city — although he doesn’t agree with sending that message — but nobody “had any idea that it would lead to this today” when the city became a sanctuary city in the 1980s and the current situation “was completely unpredicted and it’s completely unprecedented and nobody thought a sanctuary city would mean what it means.”
Co-host Sandra Smith asked, [relevant exchange begins around 3:30] “[D]idn’t leadership in your city say, we’re a sanctuary city, all are welcome, wasn’t that the message?”
Hopkins responded, “Yes, you’re not hearing that from me. I think if we had to vote all over again on authorization for whether Chicago is going to be a sanctuary city, I’m not sure we would be. In fact, we tried to put a referendum on the ballot in March coming up to ask the voters, do you want to be a sanctuary city? And the mayor and his team blocked that effort. So, we don’t know if there is political will to continue being a sanctuary city. But I will say this: Our status as a sanctuary city first was established way back in the ’80s. This is not new. We put this flag in the ground a long time ago. No one, at that time, had any idea that it would lead to this today. This was completely unpredicted and it’s completely unprecedented and nobody thought a sanctuary city would mean what it means.”
Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett
Chicago Alderman: Chicago Has to Try ‘to Close Its Own Borders’ Because Feds Didn’t Secure Border
On Thursday’s broadcast of the Fox News Channel’s “America Reports,” Chicago Alderman Brian Hopkins stated that the federal government has failed to secure the U.S.-Mexico border and now Chicago is “attempting to close its own borders to the constant flow of migrant buses and now private charter planes that are landing.”
Hopkins said, “Part of this is a response to the city attempting to close its own borders to the constant flow of migrant buses and now private charter planes that are landing. It’s happening at a time when we are not prepared, when we don’t have the resources that we’ve allocated, the social workers, the medical staff, the people who are there to try and take these migrants in. When they’re not working and a bus pulls up and hundreds of people disembark from buses, they have nowhere to go. We actually had a bus driver drop off 60 people at Sears Tower at about 11:00 at night, and he told them, oh, by the way, they’re expecting you in the lobby. Well, that was pure fabrication, and he just left them there, he pulled away and left them there. These are human beings, and they’re being treated like fodder. It’s unacceptable. So, we tried to get control of that, and as a result, the bus drivers found out they couldn’t drive into Chicago in the off hours, so they were dropping them off in the suburbs, leaving them at the commuter rail stations, and telling them to take a train in in the morning. So, the situation has gone from bad to worse and it’s just chaos out there.”
Later, co-host Sandra Smith asked, “Aren’t we talking about a massive crisis at the southern border from where these migrants are coming? And what is your message on the lack of security and the lack of securing the southern border on the part of the federal government?”
Hopkins responded, “Yeah, absolutely. The federal government has dropped the ball. I’ve made that clear, I’ve said that repeatedly since this crisis started. We, as a city, the municipal government of Chicago, are not equipped to handle this. We’ve never been equipped to handle this. We’re trying to do the best we can. But when this crisis started over a year ago, we went to the federal government immediately and said, we can’t do this, give us funding, give us support. We went to FEMA and basically came away empty-handed. So, that’s the source of my impatience now. We’ve been asking for assistance from the federal government to help this crisis on the ground and to secure the border in Texas and Arizona. And so far, neither has happened.”
Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett
NYC Mayor Eric Adams Sues Texas Bus Companies, Not Joe Biden, for Crippling Costs of Illegal Immigration
Mayor Eric Adams (D) is suing several Texas-based charter and bus companies for not covering costs associated with illegal immigration when busing border crossers and illegal aliens to New York City.
While President Joe Biden’s Department of Homeland Security (DHS) releases about 5,000 border crossers and illegal aliens into the United States interior every day, about 34,000 have arrived in New York City from Texas via buses contracted by Gov. Greg Abbott (R).
The migrant busing scheme has been widely successful for Abbott, allowing Texans to off the costs of record illegal immigration levels under Biden onto sanctuary cities like New York City, Chicago, Denver, Washington, D.C., and Los Angeles.
On Thursday, Adams and New York Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) announced a lawsuit against 17 charter and bus companies contracted by Texas to send border crossers and illegal aliens to New York City.
Adams argues that the bus companies ought to cover the costs of illegal immigration in New York City to the tune of about $708 million, a press release states:
Today’s suit seeks to recoup the hundreds of millions of dollars incurred to care for all these individuals, costs moving forward for any of those migrants still in New York City’s care, and costs for all those who are transported to New York City from Texas in the future as part of Governor Abbott’s plan. [Emphasis added]
Adams said Abbott’s migrant busing scheme is “an attempt to overwhelm our social services system” and accuses the bus companies of violating “state law by not paying the cost of caring for these migrants…”
“… that’s why we are suing to recoup approximately $700 million already spent to care for migrants sent here in the last two years by Texas,” Adams said. “Governor Abbott’s continued use of migrants as political pawns is not only chaotic and inhumane but makes clear he puts politics over people. Today’s lawsuit should serve as a warning to all those who break the law in this way.”
Likewise, Hochul said the bus companies — not the Biden administration — “should be on the hook for the cost of sheltering those individuals – not just passing that expense along to hard working New Yorkers.”
According to Adams, from April 2022 through December 2023, New Yorkers have been forced to spend $3.5 billion housing, feeding, and clothing nearly 165,000 border crossers and illegal aliens released into the U.S. interior by the Biden administration.
As a result, Adams is slashing city services for New Yorkers with a 20 percent cut in spending to afford services for border crossers and illegal aliens.
John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Email him at jbinder@breitbart.com. Follow him on Twitter here.
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