Peter Schweizer: Biden border crisis was an ‘attack … right up there with 9/11’

Journalist Peter Schweizer said that the influx of migrants that entered under former President Joe Biden was an “attack” that was likely on par with 9/11 and Pearl Harbor during a Wednesday episode of “Pod Force One.”

Biden reportedly presided over the highest level of net migration in American history after rapidly undoing President Donald Trump’s policies to crack down on illegal immigration. Schweizer argued on the podcast that what took place under Biden was “weaponized immigration” that led to violent crime and criminal networks in the United States.

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“[O]ur federal government did a study in the late 2000s and said the three biggest, most successful attacks on the United States in our history were 9/11, Pearl Harbor, and the Mariel Boatlift in terms of the effect on Americans,” Schweizer said. “And look at those three attacks. After 9/11, we destroyed al-Qaeda. After Pearl Harbor, we destroyed the Japanese Empire. After the Mariel boatlift, nothing. And this is why weaponized immigration is such a powerful tool. Who do you attack? Who do you invade? Where do you send the Marines?”

Schweizer said that Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega and Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva learned from former Cuban President Fidel Castro conducting the Mariel Boatlift, which brought over 100,000 Cubans to the United States in 1980.

“And so when Joe Biden opened up the gates, they immediately went about sending as many people as possible, people with mental problems, people with criminal pasts,” he said. “It was a replay of the Mariel Boatlift, but on a massive scale. The Mariel Boatlift lift was 125,000 people. We don’t know. Some estimates are 20 million came across the border. So it was on a thermonuclear scale.”

Host Miranda Devine asked if the border crisis under Biden represented “the fourth big attack” on America.

“Yes, I think probably if they were to do that study now, it would probably surpass the Mariel Boatlift. When you look in terms of the violent crime it’s caused, the criminal networks that have been in our country,” Schweizer said. “Fidel Castro got organized crime networks and drug cartels in the United States. Certainly, that happened during Joe Biden’s watch. So, I would say it’s probably right up there with 9/11 and with Pearl Harbor.”

“It doesn’t have the buildings collapsing. It doesn’t have the American soldiers being killed, but it is a kinetic attack,” he continued. “And the problem again with this kind of weaponized immigration is it’s a lot harder to deal with. You cannot destroy an enemy military infrastructure and declare victory.”

Nearly 3,000 people were killed during the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, according to the Pew Research Center. Over 2,300 Americans were killed as a result of the Japanese attack on the U.S. Naval Base at Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941.

Democrats have faced backlash for comparing the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot to the 9/11 and Pearl Harbor attacks.

CBS News reported in February that out of around 400,000 immigrants Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrested during the first year of Trump’s second term, less than 14% had violent criminal records, citing an internal Department of Homeland Security document it obtained.

However, former Assistant Secretary of Homeland Security for Public Affairs Tricia McLaughlin pushed back on the reporting in an X post, listing serious crimes like drug trafficking and human smuggling that were not classified as violent.

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