Biden blasted by restaurant owner over border crisis and says it's turned ... trends now
A Tuscon-area restaurateur slammed soft-on-crime policing and President Biden's open border policies for transforming his family-friendly neighborhood into a hotbed for crime.
Grant Kreuger, owner of Union Hospitality Group, told Fox News that the decline of the Arizona hub has left him 'terrified,' and said the shift seemingly came when Biden entered the White House.
'We've had more crime in my restaurant establishments over the last four years than we had in the previous 15 combined,' he said.
Tuscon saw a 300 percent spike in unsheltered homelessness from 2018 to 2023, which Kreuger said has triggered a crimewave, including an alarming surge in random attacks on his own customers.
Grant Kreuger, owner of Union Hospitality Group, spoke out over rampant homelessness and drug taking ruining the Tuscon area, leaving him and his customers 'terrified'
Homelessness surged 60 percent in Tuscon from 2018 to 2023, with unsheltered homelessness increasing by a startling 300 percent in that time frame, a government report found
The businessman said his restaurant was previously found in one of the 'nicer areas of town', but the surge in homelessness and crime has caused a sharp decline.
In particular, Kreuger blamed weak border policies for allowing drugs to flood Tuscon, and said his own children are often confronted with open-air drug taking.
'Quite frankly, it terrifies me for my own children to see this level of open drug use and distribution happen in broad daylight on our city streets,' he said.
Kreuger added that he has personally spent tens of thousands of dollars on security because he says the police routinely fail to crack down.
'It's gotten to the point that we often don't even report it to the authorities anymore, because we feel, quite frankly, that there's very little that they're going to do,' he said.
'Our municipalities are currently not enforcing many laws on the books when it comes to public camping, when it comes to panhandling... when it comes to public urination, defecation or open consumption of alcohol and drugs.
'And the lack of enforcement of all these laws have made
