(The Center Square) – At a White House press briefing Monday, Border Czar Tom Homan said President Donald Trump’s border policies were “making America safe again.”
Homan, who’s worked for six presidents and in law enforcement for more than 40 years, said, “Every president I ever worked for took border security seriously because you can’t have national security if you don’t have strong border security. We’ve got to know who’s coming in, what’s coming in, where it’s coming in, and why it’s coming in.”
He said former presidents Barack Obama and Bill Clinton, both Democrats, “took some steps to secure the border. They understood national security was important.”
By contrast, former President Joe Biden “was the first president in the history of this nation who came into office and unsecured a border on purpose,” Homan said. The former Trump administration, under which Homan previously worked, “handed the Biden administration … the most secure border in my lifetime and he [Biden] unsecured it on purpose,” he said.
So far under Trump’s second term, there’s been “unprecedented success,” he said, surpassing first Trump administration border successes.
Illegal crossings are at historic lows with the U.S. having “the most secure border in the history of this nation,” Homan said. Referring to reduced illegal crossings as a metric of border security, he said, “the numbers prove Trump’s policies are saving lives every day.”
In Trump’s first 100 days, illegal immigration is down 96%, Homan said. With 96% fewer illegal entries, “how many less women are being sexually assaulted by the cartels?” he asked. “How many less children are dying making that journey? How many women and children aren’t being sex trafficked into this nation? How many known suspected terrorists aren’t making it into this country? How many pounds of fentanyl aren’t getting in this country to kill young Americans?”
“Under Joe Biden, sex trafficking was up 600%,” he said. “We had 4,000 aliens dying making that journey. We had a quarter million Americans dead from fentanyl that came across the border. President Trump’s policies save lives every day.”
“Even the border wall saves lives,” he said, explaining that “the most vulnerable, the women and children, can’t get over the wall, which means they’re going to a place where there’s not a wall.” Instead, they arrive in an area where Border Patrol agents address their humanitarian and healthcare needs, he said.
Homan also compared illegal entry data under the Trump and Biden administrations.
Under the Biden administration, illegal entries averaged between 11,000 and 15,000 nationwide. In the last 24 hours, illegal entries totaled 178.
“Fifteen thousand to 178, unprecedented success,” he said.
Under the Biden administration, there was an average of 1,800 gotaways reported a day, those who illegally entered to evade capture, Homan said. Under the Biden administration, more than two million gotaways were reported, The Center Square exclusively reported.
As of April 27, the average daily number of gotaways reported was 38, Homan said. “Thirty-eight is too many; we’ll get that to zero, but we went from 1,800 to 38,” he said.
From January 20 to April 1 last year, “184,000 illegal aliens were released into the United States,” Homan said. Over the same time-period, under this Trump administration, nine were released. Four were material witnesses in a criminal investigation who are needed to testify, he said. Four had extreme medical conditions; “We couldn’t return them because they’re in such bad shape.” One was released for humanitarian reasons.
“This is unprecedented success. The border is secure. President Trump is saving lives,” he said.
Of the six administrations he’s worked for, he said, “no one does it better than President Trump. There is no equal. It’s not even close.”
U.S. Customs and Immigration Enforcement agents were aggressively working to remove illegal foreign nationals in the interior to first remove public safety and national security threats every day, he said. “While you’re all sleeping at two, three in the morning, there are men and women out there enforcing the law making this country safer again.”
This article was originally published at www.thecentersquare.com
