Immigrants are continuing to enter the United States in record numbers because of Biden administration policies that have left the U.S.-Mexico border "wide open," and pose not only harm to the United States but a humanitarian danger to migrants, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton said on Newsmax Friday.
"I was predicting these numbers would continue for years unless we did something like enforce federal law, which is what he's supposed to be doing," said Paxton on Newsmax's "National Report."
Meanwhile, more thorough and protective processes would protect the immigrants as well, said the GOP attorney general.
"These people are subject to all kinds of crime," said Paxton. "Some of them die on the way. When they're crossing the border, they're subject to human traffickers. Sex trafficking … I don't think you can think of a worse way of doing this. That's more people that are supposed to be coming here for freedom."
Thousands of migrants aren't appearing for their court procedures because immigration lawyers are advising them to enter the country, where they get to wait for their hearings, so they often just disappear, Paxton added.
"The administration knows this is how it works," he said. "This is what [former President Donald Trump] was so frustrated with before his administration, with the Obama administration. He started enforcing federal law and making people wait for their hearings in another country, and it worked."
But under Biden, the United States is "back to the old policies," said Paxton. "They're obviously in violation of federal law, and we're going to get more of these people just not showing up for their hearings, disappearing and staying in the United States, violating federal law."
Paxton further discussed a ruling from Austin, where a judge determined that the arrest of a man near the border in connection with Gov. Greg Abbott's "Operation Lone Star," which allows illegal immigrants to be arrested for trespassing, was unconstitutional.
"We have the right to enforce state law," said Paxton. "We have trespassing laws. What that would mean is any illegal immigrant coming into our country is in violation of state law because of the federal government's not enforcing their federal law.
But the ruling, he said, means that state laws can be violated but the federal government will say "it's OK."
"That cannot be right," said Paxton. "No U.S. citizen can do that. So that's what this ruling would mean. It means that every illegal immigrant could violate any state law, presumably laws related to murder, related to drugs, anything because somehow the federal government controls everything as it relates to people coming into our country committing crimes."
He also pointed out that even though the Biden administration has been court-ordered to enforce the remain in Mexico policy, which keeps immigrants out pending their asylum proceedings, that rule is not being enforced.
"They are making a mockery of the Constitution, of federal law, and court orders," said Paxton.
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Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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