In a stunning display of denialism during a June 3 U.S. House Rules Committee hearing, far-left Democrat Rep. Teresa Leger Fernandez (NM-03) attempted to rewrite history, declaring, “But I do think that it is important that we stay rooted in fact. And the reality is there were no open borders during Biden.”
The comment quickly ignited a firestorm of criticism from Republicans, border security advocates, and anyone familiar with the reality of America’s recent border crisis.
Ben Petersen of the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) rebuked the statement on X, writing:
“Record-breaking MILLIONS of illegal immigrant crossings, overwhelmed border towns & cartel criminals running wild say otherwise.”
Leger Fernandez’s claim is not only false—it’s blatantly contradicted by government data and the lived experiences of border state residents. During Joe Biden’s term from 2021 to early 2025, the United States suffered the worst border crisis in modern history, marked by record-shattering numbers of illegal border crossings.
According to U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), more than 7.8 million illegal alien encounters occurred under Biden’s watch—the highest ever recorded in a comparable timeframe. This doesn’t even account for those who were not encountered or those who got away, estimated to be far exceeding a grand total of ten million illegal aliens who lawlessly flooded into the country. Fiscal Year 2022 alone saw a jaw-dropping 2.76 million encounters, and the crisis only intensified until President Donald J. Trump returned to office in January 2025.
Since Trump’s return, the border has undergone a dramatic turnaround. Reinstating policies like Remain in Mexico, expanding deportations, and authorizing the completion of the border wall, President Trump has overseen a 95% drop in illegal crossings compared to the same period the previous year, according to the Department of Homeland Security. Some immigration analysts, including those at the Center for Immigration Studies, have even noted that the U.S. is now experiencing the lowest levels of illegal crossings in decades—if not ever.
This resurgence of enforcement has also disrupted cartel operations and slowed the flow of fentanyl and human trafficking across the border, clear proof that secure borders save lives.
Compare that to the Biden years, when the administration dismantled successful Trump-era policies on Day One, ended Title 42, and effectively adopted a de facto open borders policy. The result was predictable: overwhelmed border towns, surging crime, and lives lost at the hands of illegal aliens who should never have been released into the country.
One such victim was 22-year-old Kayla Hamilton, who was raped and murdered by an MS-13 gang member allowed to enter illegally and placed into a resettlement program.
Tren de Aragua gang members from Venezuela even took over apartment complexes and terrorized residents in places such as Aurora, Colorado. Mt. Cristo Rey was also conquered by cartel smugglers under Biden’s reign.
Leger Fernandez’s desperate attempt to shield the Biden administration from accountability isn’t just dishonest—it’s dangerous. As a representative from a border state, her refusal to acknowledge the facts betrays her constituents and undermines the safety of all Americans. Her actions, along with those of her U.S. House colleagues, Melanie Stansbury and Gabe Vasquez from the New Mexico delegation, to shield illegal aliens from accountability, also speak volumes. Vasquez represents the borderlands of southern New Mexico, where he faces a tough reelection.
Thanks to President Trump, the border is finally being secured once again—but voters should remember who helped create the crisis in the first place.
This woman is a lunatic idiot. I live on the border minutes from Mexico. She’s a good example why New Mexico is in the condition it’s in. Go head New Mexicans keep voting for these lunatics.🇺🇸
YOUR SO RIGHT..The 3 idiots Gab, Stansbury, Fernandez..They have caused NM to be a terrible state…
its the voters that cause NM to be a terrible state. they didnt have to pick these fools
Amen…
Vasquez, Stansbury, and Leger — the3 Stooges
You are 100 % correct . Their main agenda is to destroy our Nation from within .
Well said, I couldn’t have said it better.
Astonishing and delusional.
But surprising?? Nooo.
Yup, and we elected her.
“The reality is that there were no open borders during Biden!” For a Congresswoman, a person who represents the American people in the United States Congress aka the United States House of Representatives, to say that there were no open borders under Biden is totally misleading. Under the Biden-Harris administration, more than 21 million plus illegal immigrants, illegal aliens, whatever you want to call them, entered into the United States. This was verified by actual sources including Border Patrol, who are neither conservative or liberal, actual eyewitnesses from actual Americans, etc. This was the largest, the highest percentage of illegal citizens to enter into the United States in decades. No joke. In fact, the percentage of illegals who came into the United States during Biden’s first year in office(over 6,000 illegal crossings per day) was the highest percentage of illegal crossings in over 62 years! 62 years! That is unprecedented. That’s historic. And it shows the severity of the open borders policies of the previous administration in this country. And the overwhelming majority of Americans including Democrats even saw this. They saw the open borders. They saw the millions of illegals coming into this country. Now, not all of the illegals who came into the United States under Biden-Harris were bad or horrible people. Many of them were children who were being human trafficked by other illegals into this country. The other good illegals who came into the United States included those who were escaping persecution from the socialist or communist countries that they came from, including escaping Christian persecution. There were good illegals who came into this country under Biden. But, there were many more who were terrorists from Hamas or were on terrorist watchlists, which included over 300+ in the latter group, as well as murderers, rapists including child rapists, serial killers, Haitians and other groups of illegals who came into this country and were given food stamps, Social Security benefits, housing, healthcare, etc for free while actual hard-working Americans and actual citizens of this country had to go through hoops and loops just to get those benefits, and other groups of illegals who caused mayhem and destruction into this country including the large cities in the United States. This is the reality of the Biden administration and they’re open borders. Why do you think Trump won the highest percentage of votes and areas and counties, etc literally in decades, as well as both the popular vote and the Electoral College in November, including on the subject of the border? Why do you think that is? Because the overwhelming majority of Americans including a fair number of Democrats nationwide who actually had the common decency to actually see what was going on at the border, saw the reality of what was really going on at the border. And that’s one of the major reasons why he won in such a huge way. It’s also why the majority of Americans including Democrats actually want Trump to deport and detain illegals including violent ones, like what the United States has been literally doing for decades and decades and decades and decades and decades, basically since almost the beginning of the United States. And for the far-left progressive Democrats including Leger Fernandez to say that there was no open borders during Biden is absolutely misleading. And the border crisis wasn’t just a United States problem. This wasn’t just isolated to the United States. This was a global problem. And in some cases, it’s still is. The United Kingdom, for example, has been experiencing a major border and migrant crisis for the last few years, if not a little longer. Hungary has been experiencing a border and migrant crisis for the better part of a decade now. And there are others. So this isn’t just a United States problem. It’s a global problem and something that we need to fix ASAP, without killing any of the migrants or anything like that of course.
i will never understand how the people of NM are so stupid as to elect the people we do. its embarrassing. and the things dems say are laughable, yet their followers hang on every word. the IQ in America has declined. the people are sheep that vote to have their rights and freedoms taken from them.
Beat in mind that the Statist Idiots in NMordor gerrymandered districts to get those idiots into office. That, coupled with the stupidity of some of the population and the 30% of government wards, who should not be allowed to vote, and you have an epic clownshow here.
Perhaps it’s not the voters but the SOS who manipulate the votes to favor the stupid democrats. The voting in NM is not secure or honest. I believe there is still unsecured drop boxes and fraudulent voting machines.
Another REASON: could N.M. have any election fraud?
Funny business with machines? Vote counts? Some county clerk’s office doings. Just to name a few.
Just one of her spectacularly dumb claims.
have you noticed that tv and radio media in this state NEVER question anything these politicians say ? no matter how absurd, how laughable, they just nod their heads yes. then the news media repeats the lies as party of their story line. 770 kkob radio as bad as all the others with new stories that repeat flat out nonsense. ive written to a few reporters at the news station and asked why they dont research the claims made by these politicians, no reply. ever.
Does she even know where the border is?
Another demon rat lying through their teeth.
You debunked your own claim in the article here:
“According to U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), more than 7.8 million illegal alien encounters occurred under Biden’s watch—the highest ever recorded in a comparable timeframe. This doesn’t even account for those who were not encountered or those who got away, estimated to be far exceeding a grand total of ten million illegal aliens who lawlessly flooded into the country. ”
7.8 million *encounters* is the CBP *encountering* migrants and stopping them from crossing over. In terms of anti-immigration policy, which this paper seems to favor, encounters are positives.
Wtf does “estimated to be far exceeding a grand total of ten million illegal aliens who lawlessly flooded into the country” mean? If it’s estimated to be be greater than 10 million…then…what is the estimate? There’s no reason to take this claim seriously.
And then the cute anecdote to help the reader falsely infer the danger of immigrants is a common disinformation technique. I don’t doubt that it’s true, I doubt that the relationship to immigration generally is relevant at all.
Fernandez and her co-morons are pathological liars. Having watched them all in Congressional hearings, I am always astounded at their blatant lies. The question is: are they really this stupid, to think anyone believes them? Or, do they know their ‘constituency are so fkg ignorant that they cannot see/hear the Bullshiiiiit emanating from their mouths…
” As a representative from a border state, her refusal to acknowledge the facts betrays her constituents and undermines the safety of all Americans.”
Can you imagine Leger-Fernandez as our next governor? She is dangerous and dumb as a box of rocks!
Where has this moron been living, under a rock with a blindfold on? She wouldn’t tell the truth if it was written all over her face. Please stop putting all the blame on voters. Do you think we WANT these morons in office trying to govern our state? When there are NO levelheaded Republicans willing to stand up and run that would give us a choice of good government or trash. In the past we’ve tried to change the status quo but the ‘leaders’ in the Round House fought them at EVERY turn, so noting was ever accomplished. NM give us people who will actually work FOR New Mexico and not their own pocket book. The media isn’t much better as they ‘believe’ and spread the lies as truth.
These ‘representatives’ are not dumb, they are evil. The local news are propagandists promoting the left’s narrative and will never contradict them.
Our state has had a corrupt voting system in place for many years now and until we pay for and demand a thorough audit, nothing will change. I worked the polls in my area several years ago and noticed some ‘holes’ in the system where cheating could happen. I reported it to the RNC and got nowhere . I then realized they are a big part of our problem. Without any real opposition, we are doomed to repeat the same insanity year after year.
Until all of us concerned, taxpaying, legal NM citizens run for local office and retake our state, we are doomed to suffer under the left’s radical and unconstitutional ideas indefinitely. May God help us.
You got it right Rose! The communists love to “sell” the vote as if they didn’t know it doesn’t matter. They control the levers of power and decided we vote on programmable ,casino -like slot machines. The unbridled corruption that is endemic to NM is mind boggling. City/county clerks, are as corrupt as the SOS. Unfortunately national politics is not far
behind, just look at congress. Until we form a new political party based on the strict meaning of the US constitution and enact term limits, eliminate bribery (lobbying) and vote on paper ballots with ONLY US citizens eligible, this country will continue in free fall!
Poor New Mexico.
I dare Leger to tell that to any Border Patrol agent.
Trump has closed the illegal border crossings and the drugs entering the country are down, crime is down! Coincidence ? Sooo she says the border wasn’t a free for all the crooks to come here? The facts speak and put the lie to her statements !
I agree with one of the comments…..who are these stupid voters who voted for these dumber than dumb representatives?
I did ask one democrat why he cast his vote for MLG…. His reply was “ I hate her buttttttttttt I’ve always been a democrat, I can’t go against my party.
This gentleman held a political office in Bernalillo County.
Unfortunately she is representative of our entire congressional delegation – incompetent and unqualified. Yet people keep voting for these attributes – only god knows why. (My guess is either ignorance or stupidity).
Are we forgetting that she and Melanie Stansbury worked for Ghislaine Maxwell? Trafficking needs open borders and no oversight, so OF COURSE it’s all “move along…nothing to see.”
I want to know when those two are going to be investigated and prosecuted. Helping pedophiles traffic underage kids disqualifies one from holding a public office. Or living freely in society.
This goes to prove that all Democrats are liars and the people who vote for them are DUMB they have their heads up their ass
I just have a few things to say. First let us not forget Martin Heinrich and Ray Lujan they are idiots just like the rest but New Mexicans keep voting for all of them. We need a clean slate and more Republican Representatives to help get New Mexico out of our rut. We can call Vasquez, Stansbury and Fernandez-Ledgers idiots but why hasn’t the Republican Party back-up anyone running against them and if they did they need a better strategic plan to get them elected. When will New Mexican’s find solutions of getting a more conservative party person elected. Where are you when asked is there anyone out there that would run for election to beat these fools. A very small majority has run against them and never has the backing of the Republican Party. All this complaining with no solution to our problem in New Mexico. Let us ask the Republican Party to move this State Red and quit letting the Democrat Party win. I’m getting tired of listening to the same old news. All our Congress Representatives are Democrats isn’t it time to change this and quit complaining and asking who out there has the backbone to move this State red. If we want it Red than we need to volunteer and send money to those conservative who are trying their hardest to turn this State but have no money to defeat the Democrats who run this State. They need backing and they need all of us to help get them there.
None of our people in office in DC are the “sharpest knife in the box”. They are easily manipulated by the likes of George Soros. Ole George always makes sure people get in that he and his comrades can manipulate like puppets.