Green Bay Reporter

The situation at the southern border with Mexico is a "self-inflicted crisis," U.S. Rep. Bryan Steil (R-WI) said after a recent trip there.

“Biden’s open border policies have created a crisis," the congressman tweeted. "Today, I saw the problem first hand in Del Rio, Texas. We must provide our Border Patrol officers with the resources necessary to carry out their mission, secure the border and end this self-inflicted crisis.” 

There were 75,000 illegal immigrants living in Wisconsin in 2016, about 24% of the total immigrant population, according to the American Immigration Council.

Nationally, there were nearly 11 million illegal immigrants in 2018, according to the Migration Policy Institute.

The border crisis started shortly after President Joe Biden took office, according to U.S. Sen. Roger Wicker (R-MISS).

Before taking office, Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris signaled that they would stop deportations, Wicker said.

"Once in office, President Biden began rolling back immigration enforcement and proposed a plan to legalize millions of illegal residents without first funding basic border security priorities," Wicker said in a statement. "These actions have sent a clear message of openness to migrants, who are now crossing the border at a rate of 6,000 per day."

U.S. Border Patrol agents arrested 178,000 people in June, up 571% from the same month a year earlier, the senator said.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has released 50,000 migrants into the U.S, but only 13% have reported to ICE offices at a later date as required, Wicker said.