Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) is calling out President Joe Biden for his plan to send 1,500 United States troops to the U.S.-Mexico border, calling it a “publicity stunt” that will help get border crossers and illegal aliens into the nation’s interior even quicker.
On Tuesday, Biden’s Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced that it requested some 1,500 U.S. troops to be deployed to the southern border as the administration is set to end one of its last border controls, known as Title 42, on May 11.
The active-duty troops, DHS officials said, will not be enforcing federal immigration law at the border but instead “will be performing non-law enforcement duties such as ground-based detection and monitoring, data entry, and warehouse support.”
The troops, officials continued, “have never, and will not, perform law enforcement activities or interact with migrants or other individuals in DHS custody.”
In an exclusive statement to Breitbart News, Cotton suggested the initiative is a mere “publicity stunt” designed to confuse Americans who may believe the administration is taking the pending waves of illegal immigration, following Title 42’s end, seriously while actually having troops help more quickly release border crossers and illegal aliens into the U.S. interior.
“President Biden wants to send troops to the border — not to secure it and enforce our immigration laws — but to process illegal immigrants faster,” Cotton told Breitbart News. “It’s a publicity stunt that does nothing to stop Joe Biden’s border crisis.”
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Likewise, pro-American immigration reformers told Breitbart News that Biden’s sending troops to the border will not stem waves of illegal immigration in any way.
“Many members of the public do not understand that troops sent to the border are not tasked with repelling or removing would-be illegal entrants, but only serve in an observe-and-support role,” Texans for Strong Borders President Chris Russo said.
“This is theatrics by the Biden administration and will not prevent a single person from being processed and released into the United States under this administration’s complete disregard for the law,” Russo continued.
Rosemary Jenks with NumbersUSA said extra troops at the border are a distraction from the record-setting levels of illegal immigration that are expected following Title 42’s end.
“The administration is trying to distract from the ongoing disaster at the border that is only going to get worse when Title 42 expires,” Jenks said. “Rather than trying to stop the illegal flow, they are intent on appearing to manage it in order to avoid the PR nightmare of daily video of people streaming across the border illegally.”
“The troops are just the latest pawns to keep the narrative on track,” she continued.
Watch: Fmr. Obama ICE Director: Biden Doesn’t Have “a Plan to Stop People from Coming up to the Border”
Lora Ries with the Heritage Foundation told Breitbart News that the latest deployment means “Border Patrol agents will have even more time to catch and release illegal aliens into the country.”
Americans for Legal Immigration (ALIPAC) Founder William Gheen said more troops at the border could even equate to more illegal immigration flowing into American communities.
“Sending more troops to the border, under these operational conditions, will increase illegal immigration — although make it less visible for news cameras,” Gheen told Breitbart News. “They’re sending the troops to help disguise it.”
As Breitbart News reported, the Biden administration expects some 400,000 migrants to arrive at the border every month after Title 42 ends. Such a monthly illegal immigration inflow would be larger than the resident population of New Orleans.
Watch — Ron Johnson: Up to 5M Illegal Aliens Welcomed to U.S. Under Biden
In Juarez, Mexico, alone, there are an estimated 35,000 migrants waiting for Title 42 to end so they can rush the border in the hopes of being released into American communities.
The projected 400,000 migrants arriving monthly after Title 42 does not include the tens of thousands of illegal aliens every month that successfully cross the border without detection from Border Patrol agents.
Last year, Biden officials estimated that up to half a million migrants — the equivalent of the population of Atlanta, Georgia — could arrive at the border every month. Rep. Andy Biggs (R-AZ) told Breitbart News in April 2022 that he expects 30,000 migrants every day at the border without Title 42.
According to estimates calculated by Sen. Ron Johnson’s (R-WI) office, since late January 2021, the Biden administration has welcomed close to five million border crossers and illegal aliens into the U.S. interior — a foreign population that exceeds the resident populations of 28 states.
Neil Munro contributed to this report.
John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Email him at jbinder@breitbart.com. Follow him on Twitter here.