On Monday’s “NewsNation Now,” John Sandweg, who served as acting ICE Director under President Obama, stated that there is “fair criticism” of President Joe Biden’s handling of the border and “there’s still plenty of fodder out there for the Trump campaign to point fingers at due to…the numbers we’ve had over the last four years.” And regardless of whether she was “border czar” or not, 2024 Democratic presidential candidate Vice President Kamala Harris “is part of the administration. She owns part of that record.”
Host Connell McShane asked, “[Y]ou look at the numbers and see illegal crossings are falling. President Biden finally took this executive action…numbers go down. What would you say to people, though, who are skeptical of that and say, well, he waited too long, and, given where we were, this isn’t really that big of a deal?”
Sandweg answered, “Well, look, Connell, obviously, I think there’s some fair criticism, and I’ve said this 100 times, there’s criticism across the board in our government. Congress should have acted a long time ago. Congress should have provided resources, multiple administrations have failed to adequately address our border. If you look at the numbers now, though, they’re — things are moving in the right direction. What is the cause of that? I think that time will tell. Obviously, the new asylum rule is having a serious impact. The numbers started dropping immediately after the rule was implemented. Mexico has stepped up their enforcement. It’s not just in Mexicali…but across the country. It is much harder for migrants to get into Mexico in the first place today, whether that’s through the airport or a seaport or across Mexico’s southern border. So, that’s pulling down the numbers. We also have seasonality. It’s the time of year when, typically, the numbers drop a bit. Either way, things are moving in the right direction. However, as you referenced, politically, there’s still plenty of fodder out there for the Trump campaign to point fingers at due to the kind of — the numbers we’ve had over the last four years.”
McShane then asked, “[Y]ou say some of that criticism is going to be fair of the Biden administration. What about for Kamala Harris and this back and forth about was she the border czar, was she not the border czar? It’s always a weird term…but the fact is, there was a responsibility that was supposedly given to her on the border. Now, it looks like what she’s going to try to do — and we’ll see how this works, her campaign manager’s hinting it’s this — is keep Biden’s policies in place that you were just referring to. How does she handle this issue do you think?”
Sandweg responded, “Well, look, she’s going to have to keep the policies in place. The situation we had at the border was untenable. As of the moment, the policies seem to be working. It’s created a deterrent factor, crossings are down. Whether that’s sustainable or not, time will tell. Connell, I think I would just be cautious about declaring victory just yet, because the smuggling groups adapt and they have a lot of money at stake in the cartels that operate the border. But nevertheless, the Vice President, unfortunately, was saddled with this idea very early in the administration that she had some responsibility for the border. Now, to be fair, her primary, responsibility was working on those push factors, working in Central America and especially in El Salvador, Nicaragua, and Honduras to try to eliminate the violence, help provide foreign aid, help rebuild the infrastructure and the governmental systems there to try to prevent migration in the first place. But, of course, look, she is part of the administration. She owns part of that record.”
Later, Sandweg added that strong sanctions on Venezuela under the Trump administration have also contributed to the migrant surge.
Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett
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