The Biden administration's messaging on the border issues has been a "disaster," former Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf said on Friday's "Faulkner Focus," reacting to the influx of migrants at the southern border.
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CHAD WOLF: "I think you have two things at play here: You’ve got not only the messaging which has been a disaster but you also have the policies that they also have tore down from the Trump administration and the ones they’ve put in place. From a messaging standpoint, their initial messaging and message continue till this day which is you can come, just don’t come now. Of course, that nuanced message won’t resonate with those folks south of the border. So, you are going to continue to see those increases ...
They have also torn down a number of policies that have made that border very secure, not only stopping construction of that border wall system but also MPP, title 42, and our international agreements. We had a strategy in place to end that catch-and-release program which we did and the Biden administration, unfortunately, has torn that down and replaced it again with a failed catch-and-release strategy ...
What we have always said over the last four years is border security is national security. It needed to be treated that way. We did that. I think you have a different approach now. Instead of securing the border, holding people accountable that break the law, unfortunately, this administration is treating this crisis as though it is simply a capacity issue. They are surging resources to the border simply to process more people. The goal should actually be to stop individuals that are trying to get into the country illegally first and then provide them a pathway to claim asylum if they want to. Instead, it’s the opposite which is going on today ...
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But, as far as national security we saw earlier reporting a couple of days ago about known or suspected terrorists within this flow. So, any time you have a surge of individuals to that border you have to be concerned not only about criminals but also potential terrorists or known or suspected terrorists or also another entity which we call special interest aliens. Those individuals that have travel patterns like terrorists, but, perhaps are not on the list. There are a number of things going on. The most concerning thing is they’re having to pull border patrol agents off the line to care for these thousands of individuals that they have in their stations. Instead, they need to be manning the line in that national security mission."