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A retired Border Patrol chief tapped to advise on immigration issues related to unaccompanied minors and refugees for the Trump administration’s first 100 days said about 70% of sponsors’ applications were fraudulent.
Chris Clem, who spent almost three decades with Customs and Border Protection, says the Trump team is working to resolve the many problems created by nearly 470,000 unaccompanied children crossing into the United States over the last four years, “overwhelming a system that was really put in place to protect the well-being and welfare of children.”
“It actually pretty much did the opposite with so many because the system was broken, the policies and practices were broken, where children were being placed [with] sponsors that were unvetted or improperly vetted or may have been illegal aliens themselves or smugglers or criminals,” Clem, who was based out of Yuma, Arizona, during the Biden administration, told Fox News Digital. “So, my role was to go in there with my 27-plus years of Border Patrol experience, and having dealt with this firsthand in the field for years, to rebuild and put… commonsense practices and policies in place. And that’s what we did.”
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.
