Tom McClintock Breaks Down Biden Border Crisis: 5.5M Illegals at Border, 2.1M Released into U.S., 1.5M Got-Aways



by JOHN BINDER 14 Jul 2023

House Judiciary Committee Subcommittee on Immigration Integrity, Security, and Enforcement Chairman Tom McClintock (R-CA) detailed, in numbers, the extent to which the nation’s southern border remains more porous than ever under President Joe Biden’s watch.

During his opening statement at the subcommittee’s hearing on Thursday regarding criminal illegal aliens living throughout the United States, McClintock said the Biden administration’s policies have created “sanctuaries for criminal illegal aliens” while forcing “a dystopian nightmare for law-abiding citizens … who must live in them.”

By the numbers, McClintock said there have been more than 5.5 million illegal aliens encountered at the U.S.-Mexico border since Biden took office in late January 2021 — a foreign population that far exceeds the city of Los Angeles, California.

More than 2.1 million illegal aliens, McClintock said, have been released directly into American communities by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). This is a foreign population equivalent to the city of Houston, Texas.

Similarly, more than 1.5 million illegal aliens are known to have successfully entered the U.S. interior without being apprehended by Border Patrol. This is a foreign population the size of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

“Among the 1.5 million known got-aways, there is no way to estimate the number of terrorists and criminals entering the country,” McClintock said:

But we do know this: By surrendering to border patrol, you are virtually assured of being released into the country. The 1.5 million who have evaded border patrol have done so for a reason: They are either conducting criminal activity or they are hiding criminal records. [Emphasis added]



McClintock also noted the Biden administration “has essentially adopted the sanctuary policies that prevent many dangerous illegal aliens from being deported after they have been convicted and incarcerated for committing other crimes while in the United States.”

Indeed, after the Supreme Court recently ruled that states lack standing to sue over Biden’s so-called “sanctuary country” orders — which ensure most of the nation’s 11 to 22 million illegal aliens are not eligible for deportation — DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas reinstated the orders.

The lack of arrests and deportations from the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency under Biden, McClintock said, paints a clear picture of the impact of the orders:

In fiscal year 2020 — the last year of the [Donald] Trump administration — ICE removed 186,000 aliens from the United States. Two years into the Biden administration, deportations have plunged to only 72,000 — a decline of more than 60 percent. [Emphasis added]

The Trump administration removed 104,000 convicted criminals from the country in fiscal year 2020, yet the Biden administration only removed 38,000 in fiscal year 2022. That requires repeating. The number of convicted criminal aliens removed from our country has declined by nearly two-thirds under this administration. [Emphasis added]

Similarly, in 2020, the Biden administration removed just 60 percent of the number of known or suspected gang members as the Trump administration had done just two years prior. [Emphasis added]

As Breitbart News reported, the orders have also ensured that fewer criminal illegal aliens are ever taken into ICE custody, even after their arrests for local crimes.

Since Biden took office, ICE has cut the number of detainers issued to local police. These detainers ask the police to hold illegal aliens in their custody until they can be turned over to ICE agents for arrest and deportation.

Under the Trump administration, ICE issued more than 15,000 detainers a month in parts of 2018 and averaged about 13,000 to 14,000 detainers a month before Fiscal Year 2020. Compare those monthly figures to when Biden took office, and monthly detainers dropped to 2,200 by March 2021.

“Explain to me how this makes our communities safer. Does anyone seriously believe that making it harder to remove criminal illegal aliens from our communities makes our communities safer?” McClintock asked.

https://www.breitbart.com/immigratio...border-crisis/