Stephen A Smith says Trump right to secure border, says 'emergency efforts were necessary' after Biden's term

17 Feb 2026 By foxnews

Sports commentator Stephen A. Smith argued Sunday that while President Donald Trump's methods may be flawed, he has taken understandable action to solve a crisis former President Joe Biden created.

During an interview with "CBS Sunday Morning," Stephen A. Smith announced that he will soon determine whether he himself will run for president.

"I will make a decision in early 2027, but I am not ruling it out because I expect a lot of success to come my way. And Lord help everybody if the amount of success comes my way ensures that I never have to worry about my quality of life ever again," he said - a departure from previous denials.

When asked about Trump, Smith said that while he isn't comfortable with the president's tactics, he understands why Trump acted to address a crisis worsened by Biden. "I don't like what I'm seeing, but everything he does is not wrong," he said.

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"The borders needed to be closed. [Trump] was right to do that, but only because Biden opened them. Had Biden followed Barack Obama's method and his plan and what he did in deporting even more people than Trump did in his first term, you wouldn't hear me saying that," Smith said.

"But when you let anywhere from 12 to 15 million people cross the border illegally, swearing in our face - spitting in our face while and telling us it's raining, figuratively speaking, by telling us there was no border crisis when clearly there was, emergency efforts were necessary."

Taken together, nearly 10 million migrants crossed into the U.S. illegally during the Biden administration - a record critics say was only possible because of a refusal to enforce immigration law.

Mark Krikorian, the executive director for the Center for Immigration Studies, said during a House Committee on Oversight and Accountability hearing that there had been "more than 10 million 'encounters' of inadmissible aliens at our borders, millions of whom have been - and continue to be - unlawfully allowed to enter the United States" between the start of Biden's presidency and September 2024.

A factsheet shared by the House Committee on Homeland Security appeared to cite similar data, noting that since the start of Fiscal Year (FY) 2021, "CBP has recorded more than 10.8 million encounters nationwide, including more than 8.72 million at the Southwest border."

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However, Smith did criticize the Trump administration's tactics.

"Now, do I like what I'm seeing in the streets of America in terms of ICE grabbing people up, snatching people off the streets, detaining folks? No, I do not," Smith said. "Do I like them saying, 'Hey, we're going after the criminals,' and come to find out, your definition of criminals is anybody who crossed the border illegally as opposed to the impression you gave us that there were real bona fide criminals that was doing harm to American citizens. No, I don't like that either."

"Make no mistake about it, we wouldn't have a border crisis under my watch," Smith added. "Hell no. We wouldn't have this crime that exists in the streets of New York. You wouldn't hear about me saying defund the police. We ain't defunding any police."

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Biden's office and ICE did not immediately respond to requests for comment from Fox News Digital.

Fox News' Chris Pandolfo contributed to this report.