WASHINGTON — President Biden proclaimed January as Human Trafficking Prevention Month on Friday — outraging critics who say he’s to blame for record-breaking levels of people-smuggling along the US-Mexico border, where monthly illegal crossings hit an all-time high this month.
Biden’s statement decreeing the annual recognition was issued by the White House press office while he vacations in St. Croix and calls for “safe, orderly, and humane migration” despite chaotic scenes at the southern border — words notably absent from last year’s similar edict.
“It’s just disgusting that he wants to declare human trafficking awareness month,” Tom Homan, former acting director of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement, told The Post.
“If anybody needs to be aware of human trafficking, it’s him. He’s enriched the human traffickers because of his lack of enforcing the border,” Homan said. “They’re making record amounts of money moving record amounts of people because of his intentional un-securing of the border.”
Mark Morgan, former acting commissioner of US Customs and Border Protection, said: “President Biden’s open border policies have undeniably unleashed a persistent tidal wave of illegal immigration pouring across our borders, resulting in the United States being complicit in the world’s largest human smuggling and trafficking operation in modern history.”
The White House released the proclamation amid reports that 276,000 people were detained for illegally crossing the southern border in the first 27 days of December, exceeding September’s record of nearly 270,000 over the same period.
“More than 27 million people around the world endure the abhorrent abuse of human trafficking and forced labor, including thousands of people right here in the United States,” Biden’s statement read. “It is a threat to global security, public safety, and human dignity.”