- Graham told Hannity that migrant children crossing the
US-Mexico border could become "terrorists." - There's no evidence to support Graham's claim that ISIS has or will infiltrate the Southern border.
- He argued that the Biden administration should return to Trump's "remain in Mexico" policy.
Sen. Lindsey Graham, a South Carolina Republican, baselessly warned that migrant children crossing the US-Mexico border may grow up to become "terrorists," rehashing an evidence-free GOP talking point in his criticism of President Joe Biden's
Graham, who supported President Donald Trump's harsh immigration policies and border crackdown, invoked the upcoming 20th anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks to make his point.
"It's going to be an economic crisis for our cities along the border, and eventually is going to be a national security crisis, because they're children today but they could easily be terrorists tomorrow," Graham told Fox
Graham's assertion is a reflection of years of GOP fearmongering. Trump similarly claimed without evidence that "unknown Middle Easterners," who he implied were terrorists, had infiltrated migrant caravans approaching the US border in 2018. At the time, a US counterterrorism official told The New York Times that there was no evidence of ISIS or other Sunni terrorist groups attempting to infiltrate the Southern border.
The number of migrants and unaccompanied migrant children crossing the border has surged since Biden took office, overwhelming both temporary detention facilities and the Department of Health and Human Services shelters children are supposed to be moved to.
Graham argued that Biden shouldn't have reversed Trump's "remain in Mexico" policy, which barred Mexican and non-Mexican asylum-seekers from staying in the US as their claims were processed and forced tens of thousands into dangerous refugee camps.
The Biden administration has begun implementing its immigration policies, which include loosening Trump's restrictions on refugees and asylum seekers, expanding family-based immigration, allowing millions of undocumented foreign workers to become legal residents and citizens, and cutting back on mass deportations.
White House press secretary Jen Psaki told reporters on Tuesday that the Biden administration's decision to allow more unaccompanied children across the US-Mexico border was a more "humane" response to the issue than the Trump administration's anti-immigrant policies, which included family separation.
"That is a policy decision which we made because we felt it was the most humane approach to addressing what are very difficult circumstances in the region," Psaki said, "and that means there are more children, kids under the age of 18 of course, coming across the border."
White House chief of staff Ron Klain said this week that the Biden administration "inherited a real mess" on the border and insisted that it is "focused on this like a laser."
"We are doing our best to surge capacity to the border, particularly for these children who arrived here without parents, to house them in a way that is safe, to house them in a way that's humane and help ultimately reunite them with either family they have in this country or sponsors who are willing to take them in in this country," he told Punchbowl News. "That takes time and that is not something you can do overnight."
Republicans have already indicated that they intend to center their 2022 campaigns on immigration, having learned from Trump, who successfully ran on promises to build a US-Mexico border wall on Mexico's dime.