Statement by Donald J. Trump on Border

Over the past two years, Joe Biden has invited millions of illegal aliens to infiltrate our country in a gigantic unlawful invasion. Now, after announcing on April 1, 2022 that he would end my Title 42 protections at the border, and declining to appeal numerous court rulings, Biden is getting what he always wanted: the termination of the most effective border security policy in modern history.

By abolishing what remains of Title 42, Biden is willfully and deliberately triggering a cataclysm of illegal immigration like the world has never seen before.

The border nightmare is happening for a single reason: because illegal aliens know that if they break into our country unlawfully, Joe Biden will do everything possible to ensure that they are not removed, and are allowed to stay here indefinitely.

This is one reason why the renewed push to ram through a catastrophic amnesty is so hideously destructive. Any form of amnesty now would be a historic disaster. It would reward Joe Biden’s lawlessness, it would reward the criminal cartels, it would reward child traffickers, and it would reward everyone who has broken the laws of our nation. Additionally, it would result in massively more illegal aliens and drugs pouring into American communities.

While the amnesty push is temporarily on hold for the lame duck, history shows that the amnesty lobby will be back with a vengeance in the new year. Every Republican must understand that any so-called “immigration reform” that gives Biden more resources will simply translate to even more releases. Biden inherited a flawless deportation system and he turned it into a mass-release machine. The border can ONLY be secured by confronting Biden’s lawless and criminal misconduct—and stopping his illicit crusade to set loose millions of illegal aliens into the interior.

To this end, Congress must immediately take three crucial actions:

FIRST, Congress must pass a TOTAL and PERMANENT BAN on Joe Biden or any other president using taxpayer dollars to release illegal aliens into our country. The best place to do that is in a federal spending bill. That is why Republicans must do whatever it takes to prevent Mitch McConnell from passing his sellout Omnibus Bill.

Congress should also defund Joe Biden’s lawless ICE memorandum that gutted ICE and halted criminal enforcement.

SECOND, having established a federal prohibition on all releases of illegal aliens, Congress needs to make permanent ALL of my administration’s groundbreaking border security reforms that allowed us to achieve the most secure border in history and to rapidly deport anyone who trespassed across our border. My Title 42 policy must be legislatively restored and made permanent, making clear that it can be used in any circumstance the president deems necessary for border management. Likewise, Remain in Mexico, our Safe Third Country agreements, expedited removals, 212(f), and many other vital Trump policies must be enshrined in federal law.

This way, when I am president, and forever after, we will have every authority to secure the border—and when Open Borders radicals like Biden are in the White House, they will be prohibited by law from returning to catch-and-release.

THIRD, knowing just how willing Joe Biden and his deputies have been to violate and dismantle the laws of our nation, Congress must establish CRIMINAL PENALTIES for any senior official or political appointee who orders, aids, or abets the mass-release of illegal aliens into the United States. What these Open Borders extremists are doing to our country is criminal—and it should be punished as such.

In the meantime, as we brace for a wave of illegal mass migration the likes of which has never been seen before, our prayers are with the brave Border Agents and ICE officers who Biden has so viciously betrayed. We thank them for their service, and we stand with them as they fight to keep bloodthirsty criminals, savage gangs, sadistic drug cartels, child and women smugglers, and human traffickers out of our country.