The Biden Administration Has Relinquished Sovereignty on our Southern Border and Handed Control of It to Deadly Drug Cartels

The Biden Administration has relinquished sovereignty on our southern border and handed control of it to deadly drug cartels.  This month, total encounters with illegal immigrants at our southern border surpassed 2.38 million for the past twelve months, breaking the record for border crossings for the second year in a row.  It was capped by a record-setting August, in which over 300,000 immigrants were apprehended attempting to enter our country illegally. And those are just the ones who were caught!  It is not enough to say that America’s immigration system is broken.  This is a crisis of the Biden Administration’s making, and Americans will pay dearly for it for years to come.

Unfettered illegal immigration has stretched the resources of our border states to the breaking point, and the cost is being borne by the American taxpayer.  The Federation for American Immigration Reform estimated the total cost of illegal immigration in 2023 alone was roughly $150 billion – more than three times the annual budget of my home state of Kansas.

This number does not even account for the other ramifications of the border crisis.  Record amounts of lethal fentanyl are also crossing our border every day. Over the past twelve months, Customs and Border Patrol seized twice as much fentanyl as they did the previous year.  While we should commend law enforcement’s work, this massive increase indicates there is far more fentanyl coming into our country than ever before.  Opioid overdoses accounted for 100,000 deaths in America last year, and this number will continue to rise if the Biden Administration’s open border policies are left unchecked.

This situation is a dream come true for cartels, though. Vulnerable immigrants, hoping for a way to cross the border without being apprehended, are forced to become reluctant participants in the cartel’s drug-smuggling schemes.  This dangerous, often deadly operation turns a $13 billion profit every year just for cartels.  Other migrants who manage to cross without help from the cartels are in danger, too, as evidenced by the tragic death of a 2-year-old boy found in the Rio Grande just last week.  This death and suffering could be avoided, but the Biden Administration’s open border policies encourage immigration that is dangerous and illegal, not safe and lawful.

Even far-Left lawmakers are reluctantly acknowledging the crisis. Mayor Muriel Bowser of Washington, D.C., triumphantly declared our nation’s capital was a “sanctuary city” after the 2016 election; after just 4,000 immigrants arrived on her doorstep this year, though, she changed her tune, accused conservative governors of creating a “humanitarian crisis” in her city and demanded federal aid to help fix the problem.  Mayor Eric Adams in New York – another “sanctuary city” – somehow outdid her, calling these same governors “cowards” for sending less than 3,000 immigrants to his city of over 8 million residents.  He demanded federal aid, too, warning that an endless stream of migrants would “destroy” New York City.  Does Mayor Adams think El Paso or Brownsville, TX, are somehow better prepared for this massive influx?  Federal aid won’t fix this problem.

Closing the border and returning to the Trump Administration’s immigration policies are the only solutions to the crisis. Our Remain in Mexico policy spelled out that if any immigrant wished to claim asylum in the United States, they could not already be here illegally.  This simple agreement, combined with our construction of the border wall and Title 42, helped get illegal immigration back under control.

Unfortunately, the Biden Administration shows no sign of embracing policies that work.  It just granted legal status to nearly half a million illegal immigrants from Venezuela, a move that might as well be a bright, neon welcome sign for millions more to cross the southern border.  For the millions more who have entered our country on President Biden’s watch, the Administration’s answer is simply to kick the can down the road.  They are given an ID card and cell phone upon arrival, then bussed across our country as they await nonexistent future court dates – all of this at the taxpayers’ expense.  This won’t fix the actual problem; it will only increase the mammoth burden on our inefficient, incompetent immigration bureaucracy and stick the American people with the bill.  America is better than this, and the American people should demand more from their leaders.