A former Border Patrol chief, brought in to advise on immigration issues related to unaccompanied minors and refugees during the first 100 days of the Trump administration, highlighted that around 70% of sponsor applications were fraudulent.
Chris Clem, who dedicated nearly 30 years to Customs and Border Protection, noted that the Trump administration was tackling the significant issues caused by the arrival of almost 470,000 unaccompanied children entering the United States over the past four years. This influx had overwhelmed a system originally designed to safeguard the well-being of children.
“In fact, it ended up having the opposite effect for many children,” Clem explained, citing the broken system, policies, and practices that led to children being placed with sponsors who were either not vetted at all or improperly vetted. These sponsors could have been illegal immigrants, smugglers, or criminals themselves,” Clem said in an interview with Fox News Digital. He, based out of Yuma, Arizona, during the Biden administration, shared, “My role involved applying over 27 years of Border Patrol experience, dealing firsthand with these issues in the field, to reform and establish practical policies and practices. And that’s what we achieved.”
Clem worked with President Donald Trump’s Health and Human Services Department to improve the vetting of documentation from sponsors offering to take in unaccompanied minors.
A U.S. Border Patrol agent checks for identification as migrants wait to be processed after crossing the border from Mexico on Dec. 30, 2022, in Yuma, Arizona. (Qian Weizhong/VCG via Getty Images)
He noted that agents are also able to use their parking lot again. It had been covered by large tents to process the thousands of migrants passing through their sector every day under the Biden administration.
“They sleep good at night knowing that they can give their all.”
“What a time to be a Border Patrol agent, to be creative, innovative, go after targeted operations again, go after those that have eluded us, work side by side with state and federal law enforcement to go after threats that have already made it into the country,” Clem said. “No. 1, they can do their job, and that’s protecting America, and they sleep good at night knowing that they can give their all, and they’re going to be championed by the White House as opposed to demonized by the White House.”
Immigrants await processing by the U.S. Border Patrol after crossing from Mexico on Dec. 30, 2022, in Yuma, Arizona. (Qian Weizhong/VCG via Getty Images)
Clem expressed concern that some U.S. officials, including politicians, judges and attorneys or prosecutors, are using their government positions to protect illegal immigrants. He has a message for those people.
“We are going to leave no stone unturned. If you are complicit, if you are knowingly and willingly encouraging, aiding and abetting, directly or indirectly, illegal immigration, whether it’s cross-border or inside the United States, we’re coming after you,” he said. “Those are the laws. And it doesn’t matter if you are a teenage smuggler on the Rio Grande or a sophisticated cartel or, unfortunately, an elected member of Congress or a state and local government — if you are aiding and abetting, if you are facilitating illegal activity, the U.S. government is coming after you.”
Migrants after crossing the U.S.-Mexico border, Aug. 29, 2023, in Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument near Lukeville, Arizona. (Matt York/AP Photo)
The CBP recorded the lowest southwest border crossings in history in March, with fewer apprehensions in the entire month than there were in the first two days of the month in 2024 under the Biden administration.
Border Patrol apprehended a total of 7,181 illegal aliens attempting to cross the southern border between ports of entry in March. This constitutes a 14% decrease from February, when Border Patrol apprehended 8,346 aliens. More dramatically, it is a 95% decrease from the 137,473 aliens apprehended under the Biden administration in the same period in 2024.
Fox News’ Anders Hagstrom, Bill Melugin and Peter Pinedo contributed to this report.
