If re-elected in the upcoming 2024 US Presidential race, former President Donald Trump vowed on Saturday to penalize future administrations that would allow migrants to cross into the country. 

He vowed to restore security measures at the border that were instated during his presidency and will ask Congress to impose criminal penalties on future administrations for allowing migrants in the US.

"Within hours of my inauguration we will restore every border security measure of the Trump presidency, we had it so good, to quickly achieve the most secure border in US history again, just as we had two years ago. And I will ask Congress to establish criminal penalties for any future administration that releases millions and millions of people that you do not want in our country," Trump said in a keynote speech at New Hampshire Republican annual meeting.  

Since President Joe Biden assumed office in January 2021, the US has witnessed two consecutive years of illegal crossings reaching an all-time high.

In the year 2022 alone, the US Customs and Border Protection recorded an estimated 2,000,000 illegal crossings. 

Read more: Immigrant deportation soar by 29% in 2022, amounting to 4.7 million

Earlier this month, Biden said he plans to send forces to the borders and ordered to speed up the deportation of illegal migrants.

He also proposed to admit 30,000 immigrants monthly from Nicaragua, Cuba and Haiti.

According to a report released by the US government on January 2nd, the number of migrants deported in 2022 increased by 29% to 4.7 million.

Statistics published by the US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) division pertaining to the Department of Homeland Security, US border guards reportedly detained at least 2.3 million migrants in the last year, which record more than any previous year. 

The 2.3 million figure represents a 37% increase over the previous figure of 1.7 million detentions. According to reports, CBP officials have detained at least 465,000 migrants since the new fiscal year began in October.

The procedure is as follows: after crossing the US-Mexico border, migrants are held at a CBP facility until they are released by border officials and served with documents to appear in court, at which point they are no longer in federal custody and are free to travel across the country, but many are still waiting months for case hearings due to legal and procedural backlogs.

Read more: Biden lands in El Paso to discuss border crisis with Mexican authority