Former Border Patrol Chief Chris Clem has claimed that the US "needed" Donald Trump's border wall, as America's migrant crisis continues to surge.
Pressure is mounting on US President Joe Biden to tackle the issue ahead of the November election, as latest figures show that in January alone, almost 130,000 migrants made the crossing over the southwest border.
Despite this, the Border Patrol says numbers have "dropped by 50 per cent" compared to December 2023.
Since Biden took office in 2021, more than 6.3 million migrants have been detained crossing into the US illegally.
Former Border Patrol Chief says the US 'needed' Trump's border wall
Reuters
In recent months, Joe Biden proposed a "Border Bill", which would grant the US government the powers to "shut down" the border when it become overwhelmed with crossings.
Donald Trump's infamous "build the wall" plan was reversed by Biden, which critics say is one of the reasons for the surging numbers during Biden's administration.
Speaking to GBN America, former Border Patrol Chief Chris Clem said the US "needed" the wall in order to improve border security, and admitted to seeing a "big change" in the handling of border crossings over the last five Presidents he has worked with.
Chief Clem told Jacob Rees-Mogg that under Trump, border security plans "really took off" compared with previous leaders.
Chief Chris Clem says the US migrant crisis was lead by President Biden
GBN America
Clem explained: "Every administration had leaned forward by working towards a more secure and safe border environment, whether that was increasing in personnel, but most importantly infrastructure in the form of of border barriers, whether as we call it a wall or fence."
LATEST DEVELOPMENTS:
He continued: "It was some kind of structure - access roads, technology in the form of lights, cameras, sensors, and all of that system really got steamrolling at the end of Obama's or the beginning of Obama's term and then really took off when President Trump came in, because he had campaigned on building a wall and securing the border.
"The wall system, and I think this is very important, was more than just a wall."
Discussing the Biden administration's u-turn on the border plans, Clem revealed: "Unfortunately, President Biden campaigned on the rhetoric and the vitriol and the divisiveness that a secure border has happened in American politics.
"And so in his first few hours and first days as President, he halted so much of the things that President Trump had implemented, which I want everybody to understand."
US President Joe Biden has visited the Border Patrol facilities in Texas
Getty
Chief Clem stated that the plans for a more secure border were "requirements by the US Border Patrol" and their agents, and not "political requirements by elected officials or bureaucrats".
Clem told Jacob: "This is what the men and women that I led said - they said Chief, this is what we need in our area, and this is what we packaged up, and that's what President Trump put in place.
"And unfortunately President Biden stopped everything and rolled a lot of policies back that led to some of the challenges and really the crisis that we have today."