U.S. border and immigration agents are railing against the Biden administration after learning that the federal government is planning to help the country of Tajikstan protect its boundary with Afghanistan while allowing hundreds of thousands of migrants illegally cross into the country.
On Wednesday, the U.S. Embassy in Dushanbe announced a new project designed to build new facilities for a Border Service unit along the Tajik-Afghan-Uzbekistan border, which will enable Tajikistan’s border forces to deploy faster in response to threats in the area.
U.S. Border Patrol and other immigration agents were upset by the report, Fox News noted.
“With the record-setting pace of nearly a million encounters so far at the southern border, it’s heartening to see the Biden administration finally getting serious about border security. It’s just too bad it’s in another country,” one senior border official told the network.
“It’s a slap in the face to us,” the official added.
Reports have said that as many as 1 million people have already crossed into the U.S. illegally since President Joe Biden was inaugurated in January.
Added another border agent to Fox News: “Biden’s already destroyed Afghanistan so the borders don’t need to be open.”
Tajikistan has pledged to accept 100,000 Afghan refugees. The country also hosts a Russian military facility, Reuters reported. The country is also a member of a post-Soviet security bloc that Moscow leads. The embassy in Dushanbe said the new facility will allow Tajik border security to “deploy forces more quickly to border areas in response to threats.”
Russia has bolstered its forces in Tajikistan and plans to hold a month’s worth of exercises near the Afghan border with Tajik forces.
Meantime, the U.S.-Mexico border remains increasingly porous, which is adding political pressure to the Biden administration at a time when the president is taking heat for his chaotic, deadly withdrawal from Afghanistan.
According to Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said last month that 212,672 migrants were encountered along the southwestern border in July, or 13% more than the already massive 188,000 that crossed and were encountered the previous month.
In July 2020, there were fewer than 41,000 encounters, Fox News added.
“Mayorkas emphasized at the time that 95,788 of those 212,000 encounters resulted in expulsions under Title 42 public health protections,” the network added.
Earlier this year, a survey found that the vast majority of Americans disapproved of Biden’s handling of the border.
According to an April ABC News/The Washington Post poll, 53% of those surveyed disapproved of how the Biden administration is handling a massive influx of migrants who have illegally crossed into the U.S., including 44% who strongly disapproved.
Meanwhile, a Fox News poll published Sunday found that an even wider majority believes that former President Donald Trump did a much better job of handling various crises at the border during his term.
“By a stark 46-15 percent margin, voters say U.S. border security is worse today than it was two years ago,” the network reported.
“By an 18-point margin, more disapprove (52 percent) than approve (34 percent) of his performance on immigration. Views are nearly identical on border security, as just over half disapprove (51 percent vs. 35 percent approve),” the report added.
Syndicated with permission from USA Features News.
