For more than 27 years, Chris Clem tried to stop undocumented immigrants from crossing into the United States from Mexico.
“I've been shot at, I've been kicked, I've been bitten, I've been spat on,” the former U.S. Border Patrol chief in Yuma County, Arizona, told about 50 people Tuesday gathered at the Tomato Bar in Pittston. “I've arrested people with known ties to terrorism. I've saved hundreds of lives. I've been in countless 100 mile-an-hour pursuits.”
He says that not to brag, but to get people’s attention as he campaigns to renew stronger border security measures. He worries about fentanyl smugglers, border-crossing terrorists and immigrants bringing disease.
Polls show immigration looms huge in the upcoming presidential election, especially among Republicans.
Clem, an adviser to the Americans for Prosperity, visited as part of the well-known group’s statewide tour highlighting immigration. The arch-conservative Koch brothers started Americans for Prosperity 15 years ago.
Clem, also a frequent Fox News contributor, said former President Donald Trump got border control right. Under Trump, the nation built an expanded and better wall, spent on better surveillance cameras, lights and other equipment and generally made it tougher for immigrants to enter the U.S.
“We were making a huge difference here,” Clem said. “Not only did he have the infrastructure and the things that we needed, he backed it up by strong policies, because he had seen, and we had seen, loopholes in certain asylum laws.”
All that unraveled under President Joe Biden, he said. Biden shut down wall construction, issued dozens of executive orders easing immigration controls and ended Trump’s remain-in-Mexico policy.
In Biden’s first year, agents encountered more than 1.6 million would-be immigrants, four times as many as in Trump’s last year. The encounters rose even more sharply in Biden’s second and third years.
Biden and Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris now tout a tougher policy he imposed in December. That dropped encounters dramatically in the last few months. Clem acknowledged that, but said Biden should have left Trump’s policies in place.
Clem didn’t endorse Trump. He’s an Americans for Prosperity adviser. The group, founded by the politically arch-conservative Koch Brothers, is registered as a non-partisan, non-profit that isn’t allowed to advocate for candidates. Instead, Clem advised the crowd to lobby local officials to join the immigration fight.
“This administration didn't have to do anything. They could have focused on pronouns for the next four years,” he said.
