‘If You Don’t Have a Border, You Don’t Have a Country’: Rep. Dan Bishop

U.S. Rep. Dan Bishop (R-N.C.) in an interview with NTD's Capitol Report, on April 21, 2022. NTD/Screenshot via The Epoch Times

U.S. Rep. Dan Bishop (R-N.C.), who sits on the Homeland Security Committee, said the Biden administration’s immigration policies are effectively creating an open border and if we don’t have strong borders, we don’t have a country.

“The border is about having a national security for the sake of Americans,” Bishop told the host of NTD’s Capitol Report, Steve Lance, during a recent interview. “That’s the reason we have a border, President Trump used to say, and correctly so, that if you don’t have a border, you don’t have a country.”

Bishop said with the flood of people coming across the southern border, thousands have gotten away because Customs and Border Patrol officers are overwhelmed processing these people.

“How many terrorists have come into the United States from countries, not just countries south of the border, but ... around the world—from China or Russia or Islamic terrorists, perhaps, that seek to do us harm? That’s the problem,” said Bishop.

A number of Biden administration immigration policy decisions have been blamed for the surge in illegal immigrants, including not finishing the border wall, changing the Remain in Mexico policy, and now ending Title 42—a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) order that was put in place in March 2020 under President Donald Trump to slow the spread of COVID-19 by ensuring that only essential travel occurred at U.S. borders.

It is estimated that when the CDC rule ends, double the number of illegal immigrants will be released into the United States, given that in 2021, Customs and Border Patrol had over 1.7 million encounters, and estimated to reach 2 million by the end of 2022.

“But it’s really getting ready to enter a phase on steroids if they go through with this cancellation of the Title 42. ... We’re seeing, just last month, over 220,000 enforcement encounters with migrants at the border,” said Bishop.

A U.S. immigration enforcement agency plans to release up to 600,000 illegal immigrants as it deals with a projected surge in migration, an official revealed in a court filing.

Deane Dougherty, a coordinator for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), said that officials expect a “historic border surge, with projections forecasted to triple current arrivals.”

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• Border Patrol Braces for New Surge in Illegal Immigration as Title 42 Ends

Because of the forecasts and the recently announced decision to end Title 42, “ICE must shift its focus and prepare to manage its resources for a population of up to 600,000 by the end of the fiscal year,” Dougherty added.

“The numbers that are being released in the United States continue to be unclear. But it continues to be huge. And we’re seeing large numbers of people on the terror watch list that are being apprehended,” added Bishop.

“It’s a disaster and we are going to see it get worse,” said Bishop.

Zachary Stieber contributed to this report.