Migrants will likely flood to the U.S.-Mexico border ahead of the 2024 presidential election out of fears of former President Donald Trump, according to National Border Patrol Council President Brandon Judd.
While appearing on Fox Business' Varney & Company, Judd was asked by host Stuart Varney if he expects to see a surge of migrants at the border "as Trump looks more and more likely to win" the 2024 presidential election.
"We do," Judd said in response. "We saw this back when President Trump was up for reelection again, we saw a huge surge expecting that Biden was going to win, they wanted to get here before Biden took office knowing that he was going to put policies in place that were going to protect them.
"We see the cartels, they are very intelligent in everything that they do. They know what the ebbs and flows of our politics are. They know how to generate money based on what our politics are. They also understand what the media is reporting."
The Context
Over the past several months, data from Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has shown a continued increase in the number of illegal migrant encounters at the Southern land borders. In January, the data shows 176,205 illegal migrant encounters at the Southwest land borders, which is a decline from December, which saw just over 300,000.
However, the numbers are still much higher than prior years, such as December 2020, which saw 73,994 illegal migrant encounters.
What We Know
Trump has pledged to take action to secure the U.S.-Mexico border if he is elected in 2024.
"On day one, I will terminate every open border of the Biden administration, and we will begin the largest domestic deportation operation in American history," Trump said at a speech in South Carolina this month.
Trump also previously said that he would "immediately stop the invasion of our southern border" if elected, according to the Associated Press.
Newsweek reached out to the National Border Patrol Council via email for comment.
Views
Republicans have repeatedly criticized President Joe Biden for his handling of the U.S.-Mexico border and have opposed a bipartisan border security bill.
Biden accused Republicans this month of being afraid of Trump because of the former president's opposition to the border security bill.
"If the bill fails, I want to be absolutely clear about something: The American people are gonna know why it failed....Trump and the MAGA Republicans said no because they're afraid of Donald Trump," Biden said.
What's Next?
A recent poll from PBS NewsHour/NPR/Marist, found that 42 percent of Americans, including 72 percent of Republicans, said that they believe the U.S. is too open on the border.
Last month, a CBS News/YouGov poll found an increasing number of Americans saying that the situation at the U.S.-Mexico border is a "crisis," 45 percent in January, up from 38 percent last May.
Update 2/14/24, 11:20 a.m. ET: This story has been updated with further information.
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