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MILWAUKEE — After the US has suffered historic illegal immigration numbers under the Biden administration, former President Donald Trump issued a full-throated pledge to restore order to the US-Mexico border.
“At the heart of the Republican platform is our pledge to end this border nightmare, and to fully restore the sacred and sovereign borders of the United States of America – on day one,” Trump proclaimed.
Trump, 77, rattled through a list of feats on the border such as ending the so-called practice of catch-and-release, cracking down on asylum fraud, and alluding to the “Remain in Mexico” policy.
“Less than four years ago, I handed this administration the strongest border in American history,” he lamented. “Under the Trump administration, if you came in illegally, you were apprehended immediately and deported.”
“The current administration terminated every single one of those great Trump policies that I put in place to seal the border,” he added.
Border security had long been a signature issue for Trump, who kicked off his 2016 campaign with a pledge to “build a wall” along the border. But under the Biden administration, illegal immigration numbers have skyrocketed to historic numbers.
“We want people to come into our country,” Trump said. “But we want them to come into our country legally.”
Throughout his time on the campaign trail, Trump has renewed his pledge to finish the border wall and end the border crisis. Trump reiterated that well-worn pledge Thursday.
“I will end the Illegal immigration crisis by closing our border and finishing the wall, most of which I have already built,” he said in his speech.
Since last October, there have been over 1.82 million encounters at the southern border, according to the latest figures from US Customs and Border Patrol.
Biden, 81, began his term in office by scuttling a slew of Trump’s border initiatives. As polls began indicating it was becoming a pressing issue, Biden seemingly started to reposition himself on the issue.
The incumbent president has faulted Trump, 78, for the failure of a Senate deal on the border that went belly up earlier this year. Trump had publicly slammed the agreement.
The former president previously told The Post that he planned to rework his speech to make it more of a unifying address in the wake of the failed assassination attempt against him last Saturday.
While he mostly refrained from calling out Biden directly – speaking his name just twice – the 45th president didn’t shy away from throwing some haymakers on the border crisis.
“The greatest invasion in history is taking place right here in our country – they are coming in from every corner of the earth – not just from South America, but from Africa, Asia and the Middle East,” he said. “They’re coming from everywhere, and this administration does nothing to stop them.”
“They are coming from prisons and jails, from mental institutions and insane asylums, and terrorists at levels never seen before,” he added.
Trump’s speech at the Republican National Convention marks his first major public address since surviving the attempted assassination during his Saturday rally in Butler, Pa.
A sniper’s bullet managed to maim his right ear, wearing a white bandage over it throughout the RNC. One person – firefighter and father Corey Comperatore – was killed and at least two others were injured in the attack.
The suspected shooter, Mathew Thomas Crooks, was killed by a Secret Service sniper seconds after he fired off the rounds.