Former President Trump says he might visit the southern border in the next few weeks, claiming he was invited by Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Border Patrol. “Well a lot of people want me to [go], the Border Patrol and the people of ICE want me there and have asked me to go. I feel I sort of owe it to them,” Trump said in an interview with Fox News’ Jeanine Pirro on Saturday night. Asked when he plans to make the trip, he sounded non-committal, “Over the next couple of weeks. The Border Patrol wants me to go. Probably over the next couple of weeks. I don’t think there’s a rush for me to go.”
Seizing on the criticism facing the Biden administration as it struggles to deal with a surge in border crossings, Trump called the influx of migrants a “dangerous situation” and lashed out at his successor. “I would love not to be involved. Someone else is supposed to be doing it,” he claimed. Trump’s comments come after his allies and former advisers, apparently having forgotten about the devastating impact the Trump administration’s family separation policy had on thousands of migrant children, spent the past few weeks trying to turn the tables on the immigration debate, an issue expected to take center stage in 2022 midterm elections. While Republicans have taken on the issue so obsessively some have accused them of using immigration as a prop, the Biden administration has also taken heat from Democrats for reopening a Trump-era migrant facility for children and continuing a policy that effectively turns asylum-seekers away at the border.
