Former Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Chief Mark Morgan says President Joe Biden’s administration has released more than 45,000 border crossers and migrants into the United States interior — a foreign population that exceeds the resident population of Burlington, Vermont.
As Breitbart News has extensively reported, the Biden administration has restarted the Catch and Release program, whereby border crossers are apprehended and then promptly released into the U.S. interior.
After their release, border crossers — as well as illegal aliens with deportation orders — can only be deported if they are convicted of an aggravated felony, are a terrorist, or are a known gang member thanks to Biden’s “sanctuary country” orders.
Morgan, during a press conference with House Republicans at the southern border, said internal Department of Homeland Security (DHS) data shows that the Biden administration has released a total of more than 45,000 border crossers into the U.S. interior.
“Right now, if you’re an unaccompanied minor in Mexico, you’re being released into the interior of the United States,” Morgan said. “If you’re a family from the western hemisphere, right now, you are being released into the interior of the United States.”
“If you were once enrolled in the ‘Remain in Mexico’ program, you are now being brought to our border and released into the interior of the United States,” Morgan continued. “… The border is wide open and it’s not monitored.”
Morgan also said internal DHS data predicts that an estimated 1.4 million border crossers will be apprehended at the U.S.-Mexico border this year — a foreign population larger than the resident population of Dallas, Texas.
In addition, Morgan said about 1,000 border crossers are successfully illegally entering the U.S. every day, undetected by federal immigration officials. In a month, Morgan said, this equates to 30,000 illegal aliens successfully thwarting federal immigration officials.
Former Acting Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Director Thomas Homan said the restart of Catch and Release, along with Biden’s subsequent sanctuary country orders preventing most deportations, is “by design.”
“This isn’t incompetence, this isn’t they don’t know that they’re doing … they know how to stop it … they’re doing the complete opposite,” Homan said.
Morgan said he and other Trump administration officials warned Biden’s transition team that ending the Remain in Mexico program, canceling U.S. asylum agreements with Central America, and ending the Centers for Disease Control’s Title 42 order would drive a surge of illegal immigration to the U.S.
Despite the warnings, Biden ended Remain in Mexico and canceled the asylum agreements. Sources have repeatedly told Breitbart News that top administration officials have been lobbying to reduce or end the Title 42 order as well.
“We specifically told them, if you ended [Remain in Mexico], if you ended Title 42, if you ended the asylum cooperative agreements with the Northern Triangle countries, you will cause, you will drive an unmitigated crisis that will make 2019 pale in comparison,” Morgan said.
“We told them that again and again,” Morgan continued. “We told them that the surge numbers would skyrocket.”
John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Email him at jbinder@breitbart.com. Follow him on Twitter here.
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