Geraldo blasts Biden on border security as Harris travels to Guatemala
Fox News correspondent calls Biden's border crisis a 'catastrophic domestic policy failure', on 'The Story'
Fox News correspondent-at-large Geraldo Rivera blasted President Biden's border policies on Monday as a "catastrophic" failure. During a segment on "The Story," Rivera said Biden was "naive" to reverse former President Trump's tougher immigration policies.
"That has been perceived as an invitation to the world," Rivera said. "It’s a catastrophic domestic policy failure on the part of Joe Biden."
He added that the reason why Central Americans make the journey to the U.S. is because their countries are "very poor" and "corrupt."
"Everybody in Central America wants to be in the United States. Guatemala is very poor. The people are lovely, but it’s impoverished. The government is corrupt and is self-serving. Gangs are everywhere. There’s violence. Why wouldn’t they come to the United States?" Geraldo said.
The Biden administration has acknowledged the growing crisis on the southern border by sending Vice President Kamala Harris to Guatemala City, Guatemala to meet with Guatemalan President Alejandro Giammattei. Prior to the meeting, Giammattei called for the U.S. to send a "clear message" to discourage mass illegal immigration northward and said he agrees with the Biden administration that there is an immigration problem but not on how to solve it.
Rivera said comments about the border being secure from Harris or the Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas are irrelevant because Biden has essentially erected a "Help Wanted" sign at the border with Mexico.
In contrast, Rivera said Trump didn't always go the diplomatic route when making changes to immigration policies like border control.
He pointed out that the former president and Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador became "frenemies"—as Trump routinely bashed the Mexican government or threatened them with tariffs—while at the same time making substantial headway in border security cooperation between the two countries.
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Rivera suggested that another reason Mexico has backed off its tougher Trump-era defense against illegal border crossers transiting north through its land is that they're not a fan of his successor.
"They don't like Joe Biden and the abrupt way he enacted the change in policy."
Harris, whom Biden tapped to be the White House's "border czar" on March 24, has yet to visit the southern border. She did recently travel to New Hampshire, wherein its Coos County borders Canada. Republicans criticized Harris for traveling to the "wrong border."