President Donald Trump blamed former President Barack Obama for “catch and release” policies that allowed more illegal immigrants to remain in the United States.
“President Obama made changes that basically created no border,” Trump said, criticizing the “so weak and so pathetic” laws for immigration enforcement.
He said that the caravan of illegal immigrants traveling from Honduras through Mexico made him sad.
“The caravan makes me very sad — that this could happen to the United States when you have thousands of people that decide to just walk into our country, and we don’t have any laws that can protect it,” he said.
Trump cited reports that the latest caravan was breaking up in Mexico, giving credit to its tough immigration laws.
“It looks like it’s been broken up, so that will be good,” Trump said.
Trump blamed Democrats for delaying the wall, although he touted funding for border structure improvements in the budget.
He called for about 700-800 miles of additional wall on the southern border to block illegal immigrants from entering the country.
“We’ll see what happens,” Trump said.