Democrat JB Pritzker admits Biden’s border crisis went away as soon as Trump took office

Democratic Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker conceded Thursday on Fox News that illegal border crossings dramatically subsided under President Donald Trump.

Border crossings have plummeted under Trump, with no migrant paroles in four months and apprehensions at the southern border dropping 93% compared to averages during the Biden administration, according to Customs and Border Protection (CBP) data. During an interview on “Special Report with Bret Baier,” the Illinois governor acknowledged that under former President Joe Biden, Chicago struggled to manage tens of thousands of arrivals with “no help from the federal government,” forcing him to plead publicly for White House assistance.

“One thing I can say is that I asked President Biden and wrote a very public letter to deal with some of the problems at the border. We were seeing, you know, tens of thousands of people being sent by [Republican Texas] Gov. [Greg] Abbott to Chicago,” Pritzker told Bret Baier when asked about the best thing that Trump has done since being in office. “And we weren’t getting any help really from the federal government.”

“Here’s what I would say. Since President Trump has taken office, we don’t have the problem that existed before with people coming across the border,” the Illinois Democrat said.

Despite praising Trump for ending the border crisis, Pritzker quickly pivoted to criticism and said Trump failed to capitalize on his party’s control of Washington.

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“What I would suggest though is there’s one more thing he could have done. He took control of the Congress. He’s got control of the judiciary. He’s got control of the White House,” Pritzker added. “He could have proposed comprehensive immigration reform and gotten it passed. He could have done that. He hasn’t done that. Why?

Pritzker urged the president to pursue a lasting solution, calling for bipartisan immigration reform instead of relying solely on law enforcement crackdowns by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and the Border Patrol.

“Why does he want to send troops in? Why does he want to send ICE and CBP in? Why not get immigration reform in place that we can all rally around? Look, I like that we have borders. We need borders, right? You don’t have a country if you don’t have borders. But let’s deal with immigration with an actual bill that Democrats and Republicans can rally around. We’ve seen it before. It’s been done before, but it’s been 40 years. Let’s finally do it,” Pritzker concluded.

The situation at the southern border stands in contrast to the turmoil that unfolded under Biden, when tens of thousands of migrants crossed illegally each month. In May and June 2024 alone, Border Patrol agents released nearly 90,000 migrants into the country, according to CBP.

The shift began once Trump reinstated aggressive border enforcement measures upon returning to office. He signed executive orders restoring wall construction, deploying military resources to the border, pausing refugee entries, and moving to end birthright citizenship for children of illegal migrants.

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