The Border Crisis Is So Much More Than That

Customs and Border Protection (CBP) released last Friday the report for the fiscal year that just ended, and it is an alarming review of the ongoing border crisis.  The numbers do not lie. While the border has been a challenge through numerous U.S. presidencies, the statistics reveal this is truly Biden’s Border Crisis.  The action—or rather inaction—of the Biden White House is directly related to what is happening on our southern border. We have a so-called Border Czar, Vice President Kamala Harris, who has literally refused to even visit the location of her assignment. President Biden, when asked about it, said he needed to get down there someday, but he was “really busy.”  We will give him this: Our President is truly setting records regarding this issue.

The CBP reports there were 2.7 million people apprehended illegally crossing the border last year. That is the most annual encounters with illegal immigrants in U.S. history. The previous record was in Biden’s first year as President, 1.72 million that year.  In the last month of the fiscal year (September 2022), there were 227,547 encounters—another record for a month.  There were 599,000 got-aways; these are the people CBP knows escaped without being caught.  They do not know how many got-aways there were that CBP did not observe.  This brings the total of illegal immigrants entering the U.S. during Biden’s Presidency to approximately 5 million-plus. They caught 98 individuals who are on the terrorism watchlist.  CBP does not know how many terrorists might be in the huge mass of got-aways.

What the Biden Administration apparently does not understand is that you get what you incentivize.  The root cause of the millions of people illegally entering the United States is the Biden Administration and their political supporters in positions of leadership.  We know that most of the immigrants flooding the border, and overwhelming our border patrol, are eventually released into the country.  They are given court notices to appear at a later date to have their asylum claim adjudicated.  Most of them never show up. Biden refuses to complete the border wall and is now demanding that Arizona stop putting up shipping containers along that state’s border barrier gaps; Arizona is desperate to try and control the crossings and the federal government refuses to do anything about it.  President Biden opposes the Remain in Mexico policy of his predecessor, where those claiming asylum were ordered to stay in Mexico until their case was decided.  With U.S. aid, Mexico fed and housed those waiting on that side of the border.  Biden criticizes the border governors who bus people to other states.  Meanwhile his Administration takes thousands of immigrants and flies them to cities all over the U.S.

California gives illegal immigrants state identification cards.  Some Left-leaning states and cities are pushing to give illegals voting rights.  New York City Mayor Adams spent millions setting up tent-like structures for the illegals that include big-screen televisions, video gaming systems, three meals a day, 24/7 snacks and soft drinks, and complimentary laundry service.  He has been in discussions with Norwegian Cruise Lines to put a ship in New York Harbor to house the immigrants because the $15 million a month the city has spent on hotel rooms is too expensive.  Nancy Pelosi, by the way, says we need the illegal folks here so they can pick our crops.

I cannot imagine how illegal immigration could be more appealing than with these kinds of measures.  It seems the Left has a determined political agenda.  They are obviously in favor of open borders and uncontrolled, unchecked illegal immigration.  But they ignore the human tragedy that is taking place daily.

We observe some of the people crossing the border illegally and we feel sorry for them.  Many of them are poor and desperate.  Americans are compassionate people, for the most part, and we want to help the needy.  Pity for those in need and a desire to help is who we are.  It is in every decent person’s DNA at some level.

However, the people on the Left let their feelings get in the way of rational thought.  When we see poor people trying to have a better life, we want to do something.  But what we are witnessing is both irrational and unethical because other people are waiting in line to come to America and many of them are desperate too.  If we do not have some semblance of an orderly process and border reforms to address what is happening, it is grossly unfair to millions of other people who are trying to go about immigration in a legal way that honors the process.

The Wall Street Journal reports that the migrants from tyrannical regimes like Cuba, Venezuela, and Nicaragua are increasing dramatically.  They are often political victims, fleeing danger. However, the Biden asylum policy allowing even economic immigrants to claim asylum adds to the chaos at the border.  These asylum claims can take years to be processed.  The message to those coming here illegally is that if you make it across the border, you have a good chance of staying here forever.

Additionally, by not having true border security and enforcing immigration law, we inadvertently encourage the worst possible outcomes. We facilitate the thousands of young girls brought across the border in sex trafficking, and other people in illegal work schemes that amount to indentured servitude—if not slavery. With what appears to be an invitation by our government to come here, immigrants are used and abused by the cartels who control the crossings of our border.  Women and girls are often assaulted and raped along the way. Almost 900 immigrants also died last year trying to cross the border—some by drowning, some by exposure in the desert, and some killed by the cartels.  By refusing to have a barrier and thus letting people come in by the millions, we become a magnet not only for people who have no legal right to enter—but we invite those who are a true threat to enter.  This includes terrorists and those bringing massive amounts of fentanyl that is killing over 100,000 Americans a year.  It is truly a weapon of mass destruction.

The situation on our southern border is more than a crisis, though it is that.  It is an ethical morass.  It is a moral blight. It is a national security threat. It is a travesty that no decent person with a conscience can simply ignore, though it seems that is exactly what is happening. The American people of all political stripes must rise up and say, “No more!”  People of both political parties and of all political inclinations must demand that President Biden and his team take this seriously and act. In the name of all that is decent and kind, we must fix the border, stop illegal immigration, and facilitate legal immigration to our country.