Arizona rancher says border conditions 'deliberate' and 'getting worse' under Biden
Fourth-generation Arizona cattle rancher John Ladd on how the border conditions have not improved under President Biden and how ranchers must protect themselves.
An Arizona rancher hampered by illegal migrant crossings lashed out at President Biden for border policies he argues are making the crisis "worse every day."
Fourth-generation cattle rancher John Ladd joined "Fox & Friends" following his testimony to Republican lawmakers about the growing crisis facing his family's border ranch.
"He's an idiot, and he is ruining America," Ladd said Wednesday.
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Ladd described seeing about "15 people an hour" coming across their ranch and said Border Patrol has not been able to stop it because they are left doing "desk jobs."
"It's getting worse every day. We're losing Border Patrol, the ones that we have here, they make them do paperwork. We don't have anybody patrolling the border. We got three or four agents, horse patrol, maybe. But it gets worse every day with this guy."
"I think it's deliberate from Biden to change the demographics of America, let all these illegals come, and then they're going to let them vote here."
Parts of Ladd's property sit on the U.S-Mexico border, with his residence only a mile and a quarter from the international boundary.
"We take care of our own safety," he said. "We've got Border Patrol and sheriff, but we're used to it. That's a problem, that's the sad part about it."
Cochise County, Arizona Sheriff Mark Dannels, who also testified at Tuesday's Sierra Vista field hearing, told "Fox & Friends First" the Biden administration has "abandoned" the southern border.
"The silence from Washington, D.C., the avoidance from Washington, D.C., and this president and Secretary Mayorkas created a very vulnerable situation here, not just my community, but this whole country," Dannels said.
"Just in the first five months, we've had over 683 arrests for border-related crimes in my county, 621 were felony crimes. This goes from all the way to murder, all the way down to the pursuits."
On pursuits, Dannels said they have had "around 121 pursuits, 101 smuggling drivers."
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Dannels described the situation as getting "worse and worse" said at the end of the day, the cartels are winning.
"It's vulnerable to not just law enforcement but the public that endures it every day, to the ones that we work for that [have] been forgotten."
"There's got to be reasonable consequences and action taken to stop this. America is at harm's way, which we already are when it comes to all the things going on with the border."
Democrats on the Judiciary Subcommittee on National Security, the Border, and Foreign Affairs and the Oversight Committee did not participate in Tuesday's hearing.
Minutemen pass through a stretch of remote Sonoran desert that has been damaged by groups of migrants having to discard clothing and medicine on their journey north. (Andrew Lichtenstein/Getty Images)
Illegal border crossings have spiked in July after falling to a two-year low in June, despite soaring temperatures across much of the U.S. southern border.
The U.S. Customs and Border Protection's (CBP) Tucson sector recorded that daily crossings have soared to 1,900 in July, a 134% increase from June's number of 812 daily arrivals, according to CBS News, which cited unpublished agency figures.
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Border agents have encountered the spike in migrants, which have included families with young children, traveling through the Arizona desert in large groups despite a heat wave in the region, with temperatures surpassing 110 degrees each day. Large groups traveling together are a typical indication that smugglers are involved in the operation, according to the report.
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Fox News' Michael Lee contributed to this report.
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