UPDATED: This story has been updated to include that U.S. Customs and Border Protection declined to comment.
Border Patrol Chief Raul Ortiz admitted under oath that there’s a crisis at the southern border, attributing the illegal migrant surge to President Joe Biden’s policies, according to a deposition.
Ortiz made the remarks during a July 28 deposition in Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody’s lawsuit against the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and other agencies, according to Moody’s office. Moody’s lawsuit alleges that DHS and other federal agencies violated federal law after not returning inadmissible migrants to their home countries and instead releasing them into the U.S. interior. (RELATED: The Biden Admin Is Paying To Bus Illegal Migrants To New York City)
Biden tapped Ortiz to head the agency in June, 2021.
“Would you agree, Chief Ortiz, that the southern border is currently in crisis?,” an attorney asked in the deposition.
“Yes,” Ortiz responded.
Since January 2021, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has encountered over 3,000,000 migrants at the southern border, according to agency statistics.
During the deposition, the attorney asked if a Spring 2021 memo showed that “aliens illegally entering the United States perceive that they will be able to enter and remain in the United States” as a result of Biden’s election.
Ortiz replied: “Yes.”
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Ortiz broke with the Biden administration’s longstanding denial of a border crisis, Moody said in a statement to the Daily Caller News Foundation. DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, has repeatedly denied a crisis at the border, instead calling the situation a “challenge.”
“After the Biden administration denied that they were engaged in catch-and-release, and that they were responsible for the historic surge at our southern border, Florida got the Chief of Border Patrol to admit, under oath, the truth. The Biden administration caused the surge, made the border less safe, and is flagrantly violating the very federal laws they swore to uphold,” Moody said.
In May, The Washington Post rated Mayorkas’ previous claim that migrants are “promptly removed” three Pinocchios.
“The Biden administration is putting hard-working border patrol agents in impossible and untenable positions—risking their lives and safety, and I want to thank Chief Ortiz for testifying truthfully at his deposition,” she added.
Ortiz also agreed that there are “unprecedented numbers of aliens are illegally entering the United States right now” and that the numbers increased when Biden was elected. Increases in illegal migration are associated with a “no consequences” policy, Ortiz explained.
CBP declined to comment.
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