Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., called on President Biden to reimpose three Trump-era border policies as critics accuse the Biden administration of inviting illegal immigration through their policies.
Migrant children are arriving at the U.S. southern border at rates faster than they can be processed and transferred to sponsor homes, a senior Customs and Border Protection official told Fox News, all while the Biden administration has repeatedly denied that there is a “crisis” at the border.
“The Biden administration keeps saying that Trump somehow dismantled the immigration system. That’s false. It was the Biden admin that dismantled three highly effective policies,” Cotton told “Fox News Sunday” this week.
PSAKI USES ‘CRISIS’ TO DESCRIBE SITUATION AT THE BORDER, THEN WALKS IT BACK
He called on Biden to extend public health exclusion to all migrants, including minors, and revive both the “Remain in Mexico” policy and “safe third country” agreements with countries like Guatemala.
“The public health exclusionary order, they lifted that order as it relates to minors. Well, guess what we have now at the border? Lots more minors. That’s not a surprise,” Cotton said.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers, center, instruct a migrants to walk toward the McAllen-Hidalgo International Bridge while deporting them to Mexico, Saturday, March 20, 2021, in Hidalgo, Texas. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez) ((AP Photo/Julio Cortez))
In February, the U.S. began admitting migrants waiting in Mexico for their immigration cases to be processed, part of the Biden administration winding down Trump-era protocols including “Remain in Mexico.”
Cotton touted one more policy, safe third country agreements.
“The so-called safe third country agreement with countries like Guatemala that says if you pass through a country that’s not your own seeking asylum, you have to make that asylum claim in the first country you pass through. That’s the international norm,” Cotton said. “Joe Biden could re-impose all three of those things this week if he wanted to.”
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Customs and Border Protection encountered 100,441 individuals in February, a 28% increase over January, the agency said. Of those, 19,246 individuals were in family units, 9,457 were unaccompanied children and 71,598 were single adults.
Fox News’ Peter Hasson, Adam Shaw and Sam Dorman contributed to this report.
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