Former acting Immigration and Customs Enforcement Director Tom Homan blasted Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas on Monday for “misleading” the public about the crisis at the southern border.
Homan told Fox News that Mayorkas incorrectly said about 12,000 migrants were in immigration proceedings.
“They are not,” Homan told the network. “That’s what the secretary leads you to believe, but many of them were released on the notice to report.
“They’re only going to be in immigration proceedings if they chose to voluntarily show up and turn themselves in, which most won’t. So, the secretary is misleading on what he told [Fox News’] Chris Wallace.”
Homan criticized Mayorkas for saying that more than 12,000 migrants might have been released into the U.S. after a camp near a bridge in Del Rio, Texas, was cleared. The camp housed thousands of Haitians.
The former director also slammed the secretary for saying 8,000 Haitians were returned to Mexico.
“He realizes they went one or two miles down the line and came into the United States because they saw so many resources to Del Rio that they left 224 miles of border unguarded,” Homan said.
“So those 8,000 didn’t just go to Mexico and they’re going to live there. They went down to cross illegally. Those 8,000 are now in the United States, you know, living here illegally.”
About 30,000 Haitian migrants have traveled to Del Rio in the past month, the Biden administration said. Many experts warn thousands more will come.
Fox News reported that approximately 2,000 Haitian migrants have been deported back to their homeland, and another 12,400 migrants are waiting for their cases to be heard by an immigration judge.
“How many recent border crossers has ICE arrested and deported? The answer, pretty close to zero,” Homan told Fox News. “That’s the next question that secretary needs to answer.”
Border Patrol reported 213,354 migrant encounters in July and 208,887 in August. Experts warn the numbers could continue to climb under the Biden administration.
Gov. Greg Abbott, R-Texas, on Sunday accused Mayorkas and President Joe Biden of being “in dereliction of duty” for the massive wave of migrants at the border.
Abbott vowed the state of Texas would continue on its own to ”arrest and jail people who are coming across the border trespassing into areas into the state of Texas.”
“Because the Biden administration is refusing to do its duty to enforce the laws of the United States, they have left Texas in no position other than for us to step up and do what we have to do,” Abbott told Fox News.
