Illegal Immigration Is ‘On Steroids’ in Biden’s America: Rep. Tom Tiffany

Rep. Tom Tiffany: Federal Government Is Facilitating a Human Trafficking Operation, One of the Largest in the World | Crossroads (The Epoch Times)

Illegal immigration has been “on steroids” in the United States ever since President Joe Biden entered office on Jan. 20 and rolled back many of former President Donald Trump’s immigration restrictions, says Rep. Tom Tiffany (R-Wis.).

“You look at what’s happened since January 20, when President Biden … one of the first things he did was get rid of ‘Remain in Mexico,’ started ‘catch and release,’ and stopped border construction,” Tiffany told EpochTV’s Crossroads program.

Biden, who campaigned in part on rescinding his predecessor’s immigration orders, not only halted construction of the wall at the border, but ended the Trump-era Migrant Protection Protocols, which forced many asylum seekers to wait in Mexico until their claims were heard.

“What’s happened—we’re going to have over 2 million people that come into our country illegally this year,” the congressman said. “It’s very clear that the United States government, at the behest of the Biden administration, is facilitating [human trafficking] as a result of that signal they sent to the rest of the world.”

“Illegal Immigration is on steroids here in America,” the lawmaker said.

November saw a record-high number of arrests at the U.S.-Mexico border. Some 173,620 arrests were made last month, according to Customs and Border Protection, marking the highest for the month of November in the nation’s history.

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The Biden administration rolled back a number of key Trump-era policies shortly after taking office, including halting construction of the border wall, ending the “Remain in Mexico” program, and curtailing the use of pandemic powers to allow all illegal immigrant children who arrive without a responsible adult to stay in the United States.

Those changes triggered the largest wave of illegal immigration the United States has ever seen, according to some experts. Under Biden, the United States has already set records for the most illegal immigrant apprehensions in a fiscal year and in a calendar year.

Tiffany said the Biden administration’s “catch and release” immigration policy is partially to blame for the number of illegal border crossings at the southern border.

“Under ‘catch and release,' people are just able to come into the country, and then they can go wherever they want to. And they’re being told that just be sure to show up for your asylum hearing—who’s showing up for their asylum hearing, especially when the United States government is not enforcing that?”

“So there are no protections in place. Going through the process of getting a visa, of getting legal citizenship, none of them are having to do that,” the lawmaker said.

The lawmaker accused the Biden administration of being complicit in facilitating human trafficking on an unprecedented scale through its immigration policies.

“They [the federal government] know that people die in these mass migrations, they know people, especially women are sexually assaulted, they know the misery that goes with this—and it’s completely unnecessary, yet they let it go on,” said Tiffany.

“That’s why I say that our United States government is complicit. The Biden administration turned the key on January 20. This would not be happening if ‘Remain in Mexico’ stayed in place, the border wall continued to be built, there was no catch and release—these things would not have happened.”

He added, “It’s a terribly unfortunate thing.”

Zachary Stieber contributed to this report.