There Is a Crisis on our Southern Border…And It's Only Getting Worse

Months ago, I wrote here about the worsening crisis on our southern border.  Having abandoned the asylum pacts between the U.S. and Mexico, as well as having ripped up the Trump Administration’s “Remain in Mexico” joint agreement, waves of illegal immigrants were coming into our country undeterred.  Border patrol was overwhelmed, and the rule of law was nowhere to be found.

It has been four months and, unfortunately, the situation has only worsened.  Last month, roughly 15,000 migrants could be seen camped out under a bridge in Del Rio, Texas, and the total number of immigrants passing through Del Rio recently totaled 30,000 – we have never seen these kinds of numbers before.  Del Rio is a town of just over 35,000 people, total.  How can a town of this size, and many other towns near the border just like it, be expected to manage the sudden arrival of so many migrants?  Where is the Biden Administration during this humanitarian crisis?  Had some natural disaster impacted these towns the way this crisis has, Biden would have insisted on traveling there to show he cared.  So far, he has shown no interest in going to the border … ever.

Last week, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas stated that 12,000 illegal immigrants will simply be released into the United States as they await court dates far in the future.  12,000.  When asked why the United States shouldn’t just “build a wall” to keep out this unbelievable number of illegal immigrants, Secretary Mayorkas responded that, “It is the policy of this administration. We do not agree with the building of the wall. The law provides that individuals can make a claim for humanitarian relief.”  But walls work, as does sound immigration policy like our “Remain in Mexico” policy.

This Administration’s inept and cravenly political approach to immigration policy is mind-boggling.  These migrants are not making a legitimate claim for humanitarian relief – they are attempting to take advantage of the broken immigration system which the Biden Administration has engineered.  And even if some did have a legitimate claim to make, the broken system meant to adjudicate their claims cannot reasonably be expected to hear them.

This broken system incentivizes the kinds of situations the United States is dealing with right now. In fact, we have been dealing with such crises throughout the tenure of the Biden Administration.  U.S. Customs and Border Patrol has reported more than 1.5 million illegal border crossings this year, and this does not yet include the numbers from September.  That was already the highest number of illegal crossings since 2000, and the inclusion of September’s numbers will only add to that record.

Rather than address this ongoing disaster, the Biden Administration instead continues providing incentives for illegal immigration.  Recently, Secretary Mayorkas released updated guidance which stated that it will no longer detain or deport individuals based on their illegal status alone: “The fact an individual is a removable noncitizen therefore should not alone be the basis of an enforcement action against them.”  This is backwards logic – we should not evaluate whether individuals should be granted either American citizenship or a temporary allowance to live in our country by first allowing them to live in our country.  That determination must be made before they cross our border; and while that determination is being made, individuals should be required to remain either in Mexico or their country of origin.

If they do not follow these guidelines, if they instead enter our country illegally, they should be deported.  This was the essence of the Trump Administration’s “Remain in Mexico” policy.  It was a joint agreement with the Mexican government, and it worked.  It worked because our policies were common sense – we didn’t shut the door on immigrants who wanted to come to our country legally to make a better life for themselves.  Instead, we took away the incentives for them to do so illegally.  The Biden Administration ignored these successful policies and agreements in favor of scoring political points with its radical Left base.

Even as the resulting crises continue to spiral out of control and bring enormous pressure and risks to so many towns and cities along our southern border, the Biden Administration refuses to change course.  Biden officials are more motivated to use border patrol agents as scapegoats, giving attention and energy to dealing with completely fabricated incidents, such as the recent false “whipping” story, in the hopes that this will distract from the astonishing humanitarian crises they have allowed to develop and worsen.

American leaders have a fundamental duty to protect America’s borders.  What we have seen throughout the first eight months of the Biden Administration’s tenure is a complete dereliction of that duty.  They ripped up a perfectly good plan from our Administration in favor of chaos at the border.  If the Biden Administration does not change course soon, the crisis unfolding now will only worsen, and the American people will have to bear the enormous resulting cost.

Now, I’m working with our team at the ACLJ, which has filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit over the Biden Administration’s deceptions and mishandling of the entire border crisis. We will keep you updated as that case progresses.