FIRST ON FOX: Several former border officials vowed to release the number of illegal migrant crossings into the U.S. by Tuesday if the Biden administration hasn’t by then.
Former Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Deputy Secretary Ken Cuccinelli, acting Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Commissioner Mark Morgan and acting director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Tom Homan accused the Biden administration of hiding the number of illegal southwestern border crossings in September.
The Trump-era officials pointed out that DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and CBP Commissioner Chris Magnus are required to release the numbers weekly and that if the numbers are not published by Tuesday, the former officials will do it themselves.
BIDEN BORDER CHIEF CHRIS MAGNUS FIGHTING SLEW OF ACCUSATIONS OF INCOMPETENCE, DISINTEREST
<strong>DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, pictured, has come under sharp criticism for his handling of the border. Former Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Deputy Secretary Ken Cuccinelli, acting Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Commissioner Mark Morgan and acting director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Tom Homan accused Mayorkas and the Biden administration of hiding the number of illegal southwestern border crossings in September.</strong> (STEFANI REYNOLDS/AFP via Getty Images)
“Hiding these border numbers just adds to the ways Mayorkas and Magnus are failing to do their job and are turning their backs on the men and women of CBP and Americans to run interference for drug runners and human traffickers. American people deserve the truth. We’ll give it to them if the Biden Administration is not capable,” Cuccinelli told Fox News Digital in a statement.
“We released border security statistics every month, because the American people deserve to know the realities of the complex and vast threats we face from outside our borders. So now, we have the Biden administration that’s not only handed operational control of our southern border to the cartels who are pushing drugs, criminals and potential terrorists into the U.S., but they continue to lie and cover it up! If they don’t come clean by Tuesday, we will,” Morgan said.
“So now, we have a Biden Administration that’s not only put a neon sign on our southern border welcoming terrorists and harboring human traffickers, but they’re now lying about it,” Cuccinelli continued. “If they don’t come clean by Tuesday, we will.” (Drew Angerer/Getty Images)
Homan said in his “almost 35 year career enforcing immigration laws under six different Presidents, I have never seen an administration lie and cover up to the American people like this one.”
“To this day, they have still not released the FY21 ICE Report that details the results of the ICE enforcement program,” Homan said. “This report has come out in the same format for the past 15 years but not since Biden became President. Why? Because it will prove that the ICE mission has been abolished. . . . It is nearly an entire year late already.”
“The entire truth about the national security threat they have created on our southern border and in the interior of the U.S. needs to be told,” he added.
The crisis at the southern border has been a thorn in the Biden administration’s side from the start, especially as the crisis has compounded under his administration’s heavily criticized leadership on the issue.
Oct. 19, 2022: Migrants encountered at the southern border in Eagle Pass, Texas. (Fox News)
Mayorkas has been caught in conservatives’ crosshairs over the situation at the border that has had the population of a city cross over it over the course of the secretary’s and Biden’s tenure.
Magnus has not been free from scrutiny, either — Biden’s border chief is facing a slew of accusations of incompetence and disinterest in running the border agency, from critics both outside and inside the administration — and is hitting back at those whom he accuses of trafficking in “deliberate ignorance.”
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Politico published a scathing piece on Monday, which outlined concerns from multiple current administration officials about CBP Commissioner Chris Magnus’ that he is unengaged, does not attend White House meetings, is unfamiliar with CBP operations and has fallen asleep during meetings he has attended. The criticism was notable for coming from within the administration.
Magnus was also accused of having tried to shift blame to other agencies for the crisis at the border, and of having failed to build interagency relations while also spending much of his time focusing on accusations of racism and violence leveled at Border Patrol agents or listing complaints about Immigration and Customs Enforcement to Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.
Neither the White House nor DHS responded to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.