(The Center Square) – President Donald Trump touted a list of border security measures he’s implemented in his first month in office before a joint session of Congress Tuesday night.
“Since taking office, my administration has launched the most sweeping border and immigration crackdown in American history – and we quickly achieved the lowest numbers of illegal border crossers ever recorded,” he said.
In February, illegal border crossings were the lowest in recorded U.S. history, The Center Square reported.
This was after Trump issued multiple executive orders to secure U.S. borders, including declaring an invasion, a national emergency at both the southwest and northern borders, and directed the U.S. military to assist with apprehensions and deportations, The Center Square reported.
“Twenty-one million people poured into the United States” under the Biden administration, Trump said. “Many of them were murderers, human traffickers, gang members and other criminals from the streets of dangerous cities all throughout the world.” They illegally entered the U.S. “because of Joe Biden’s insane and very dangerous open border policies. They are now totally embedded in our country, but we are getting them out and getting them out fast.”
In Trump’s first month in office, more than 20,000 illegal foreign nationals were arrested, a 627% increase in monthly arrests compared to 33,000 at large arrests in all of last year, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said. Overall, total removals of illegal foreign nationals exceeds 50,000, including some of the most violent offenders, according to DHS.
Trump cited examples of violent criminal illegal border crossers killing Americans, including University of Georgia nursing student Laken Riley, and 12-year-old Houstonian, Jocelyn Nungaray, whose angel mothers were in attendance.
Trump also countered a narrative of the previous administration that “we needed new legislation to secure the border. It turned out that all we really needed was a new president,” he said. The bill Democrats touted would have codified existing Biden administration policies, worsening the border crisis, The Center Square reported.
Trump also criticized the Biden administration for opening the U.S. borders by flying illegal foreign nationals into the country “to overwhelm our schools, hospitals and communities … like Aurora, Colorado, and Springfield, Ohio, which buckled under the weight of the migrant occupation and corruption like nobody’s ever seen before. Beautiful towns destroyed.”
By implementing a mass deportation effort, he said his administration was undergoing “the great liberation of America.”
Trump also highlighted his decision to designate drug cartels and violent transnational criminal gangs as foreign terrorist organizations, saying, “They are now officially in the same category as ISIS. Countless thousands of these terrorists were welcomed into the U.S. by the Biden administration but now every last one will be rounded up and forcibly removed from our country, or if they’re too dangerous, put in jails standing trial in this country. Because we don’t want them to come back, ever.”
He also praised former Border Patrol agent Roberto Ortiz, who was fired upon by cartel members in the Rio Grande Valley of Texas, saying, “he leapt into action, returning fire and providing crucial seconds for his fellow agent to seek safe safety.”
The U.S.-Mexico border, which was dominated by Mexican cartels under the Biden administration, “pose a grave threat to our national security … and are waging war in America,” he said. “It’s time for America to wage war on the cartels, which we are doing.”
Trump also highlighted Mexican authorities transferring 29 cartel leaders to the U.S. “That has never happened before,” he said. However, Mexican and Canadian officials can “do much more,” he said, to stop fentanyl and drugs from pouring into the U.S., which is why he was holding steadfast on imposing tariffs.
Trump said he submitted a detailed border security funding request to Congress. It lays out “exactly how we will eliminate these threats to protect our homeland and complete the largest deportation operation in American history,” he said, calling on Congress to pass it so he can sign it into law.
