General Glen VanHerck, commander of Northern Command and the North American Aerospace Defense Command, revealed during a Congressional hearing on Thursday the Biden administration is working on a new request for additional help from the U.S. military to deal with the continued influx of illegal border crossings.
Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-OK) asked VanHerck if there was any additional requests from the Biden administration for more personnel to be deployed to the southern border.
"There is a request from the Department of Homeland Security, it's in the planning stages right now of the department to provide additional capability or capacity based on the potential for additional immigration or folks coming to the southwest border," VanHerck replied.
VanHerck added he does not have any more information about the request and he has not been officially tasked with providing support to government agencies along the southern border.
?? This is a big deal? General VanHerck of @USNorthernCommand just confirmed that the Biden administration is working on a NEW request for additional @DeptofDefense support at the southern border - finally admitting just how bad things are. pic.twitter.com/WmDl5XFOfm
— Sen. Jim Inhofe (@JimInhofe) March 24, 2022
"Remember how much Democrats criticized President Trump for sending the National Guard to the border? Well, it worked. Now, under President Biden, we've had 12 straight months of +150K illegal immigrants stopped at the border," Inhofe tweeted.
Border Patrol Chief Raul Ortiz revealed he is anticipating his agents will be apprehending around 8,000 people per day in the coming weeks as it is prime weather to illegally cross, not too hot or too cold. For context, former Homeland Security Jeh Johnson said he considered it to be a crisis if agents were arresting 1,000 people per day.