The Border Patrol Union tore into the Department of Homeland Security Tuesday morning, calling its public warnings of “targeted” immigration enforcements a “sad joke” and dubbing Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and Vice President Kamala Harris “clowns.”
The service’s official union lashed out after a Monday press release announced the ops at the crossing in El Paso, where thousands of migrants are waiting in the run-up to Title 42 ending Thursday.
“Nothing like publicly announcing that dangerous people will be arrested, while warning them ahead of time exactly where to run and hide to avoid arrest,” the union tweeted in reply to the press release.
“This entire operation is a sad joke – another pandering PR stunt.
“Serious law enforcement leaders don’t behave this way,” the union’s official Twitter page wrote.
The anger was sparked by Homeland Security announcing Monday that Border Patrol and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) “will conduct a targeted enforcement operation in El Paso.”
Agents will then “process individuals for vetting and placement into Title 42 expulsion” ahead of it running out later this week, the announcement said. “Noncitizens who pose a threat to national security of public safety will be transferred to ICE for detention.”
“As we have said repeatedly, individuals who do not have a lawful basis to remain will be removed,’ Acting Commissioner Troy Miller said in the release.
“Individuals should not listen to the lies of smugglers and instead use lawful pathways to protection.”
The union lashed out after Fox News reporter Bill Melugin noted that “from a strategic standpoint, it is puzzling that DHS would announce this publicly via a press release.”
It “essentially gives these evaders/gotaways a heads up that they are coming,” he tweeted.
“Already hearing from frustrated Border Patrol agents saying the operation will now be worthless,” he said.
The pre-warning comes as El Paso has already been overwhelmed by thousands of fresh arrivals, with an estimated 80,000 South American migrants behind them currently amassed in Guatemala, heading for the US.
The surge is expected as Title 42, the pandemic-era policy that allowed the US to expel 2.8 million asylum seekers over the past three years due to a health emergency, is due to end at 11:59 p.m. Thursday.
“Our border is getting absolutely crushed…and has been for over 2 years with the worst yet to come,” the Border Patrol Union said in an earlier tweet.
After Thursday, “the massive crush of illegal aliens coming through our border will make the last 2 years look like amateur hour,” the union also warned.
“And [President] Biden doesn’t have one clue about how to contain what he’s unleashed. He has a clown running DHS and a worse clown as VP.,” it said of Alejandro Mayorkas and Kamala Harris.
“Watch what happens.”