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Officials at the US Department of Homeland Security, Customs and Border Protection and other agencies are bracing for another migrant influx in the upcoming months. Last year’s record-breaking immigration rates prompted an outcry from GOP officials and lawmakers, who blame the current administration’s eased border policies for the spike in migration.
Tucker Carlson pulled no punches over the Biden administration's southern border policy. He cited figures across the American southwest that show an increase in crime and instability.
“Crime in Houston has gotten scary. The murder rate there has risen by more than 50% in just the last year,” he said on “Tucker Carlson Tonight” on Thursday.
He blamed the current administration for the increased crime rate not only in Houston but in other cities in Texas and other states “where millions of illegal aliens have flooded in during Joe Biden's presidency.”
“Texas shares more than 1,200 miles of border with Mexico. There is a brutal cartel war underway in Mexico right now. It's been going on for a long time. Many of the combatants in that war have now moved north into Texas. They brought drugs with them. They've also brought machine guns,” the Fox News host said.
Carlson also mentioned another issue that has become a source of constant criticism from Republicans – fentanyl overdoses, which, last year, surpassed heroin overdoses. Fentanyl, an easily produced synthetic opioid, has been one of the main drugs trafficked from Mexico into the United States and has accounted for over 100,000 deaths and 64% of all drug overdoses in the US.
“Huge numbers of Americans are dying as a result of that invasion,” he said. “Most were killed by fentanyl that is trucked in from Mexico across open borders. Long term, there are massive labor market disruptions, there is evaporating social cohesion, and so on. The costs of this have been beyond calculating, and this is exactly why no sane country opens its borders ever, ever, anywhere.”
Carlson attacked Democrat lawmakers, who are calling for the abolition of Title 42, a Trump-era law that empowers the authorities to extradite illegal immigrants due to pandemic concerns. Earlier in the week, authorities were preparing to encounter 170,000 immigrants over the upcoming months if Biden decides to stop extraditions under Title 42, with DHS calling on its workers to volunteer at the southern border.
Illegal immigration traditionally peaks seasonally in the spring and early summer. Historically, the month of May sees the most illegal border crossings.
“So, your kid has to wear a mask in school, but illegal aliens get to come here with no restrictions at all, despite the fact they may be infected with COVID because otherwise, you're a racist,” he said.
Meanwhile, US Border Patrol agents reported 164,973 encounters with migrants stopped from illegally crossing the southern border in February, which is a 63 percent increase compared to the same period last year. Nevertheless, it is less than the 20-year record of 212,000 encounters, reported by the DHS in June last year.
Carlson claimed that the US military can be used to solve the problem of “open borders” and stop the “invasion.” He criticized the decision to send “thousands of American troops and billions in American military hardware to Eastern Europe to help Ukrainians restore their borders,” wondering “why not here.”
“Mexico, whatever its merits, is in the middle of a war,” he said. “That’s a war, a civil war. Feet from our border. That's the country Joe Biden opened our border to.”
Since the start of the Russian military operation on February 24, Washington has announced plans to deploy additional troops to Eastern European NATO members.
The Pentagon has already sent approximately 7,500 soldiers along with military equipment to Poland, Romania, Germany, and the Baltic States “to respond to the current security environment in light of Russia's renewed aggression against Ukraine” and to bolster the alliance’s eastern frontiers.