Crisis: noun —a condition of instability or danger, as in social, economic, political, or international affairs, leading to a decisive change. —Dictionary.com

Have we reached a crisis with regard to illegal immigration? By every indicator — including the shameless spectacle of Republicans in both chambers of Congress joining Democrats to defeat President Donald Trump’s use of a national emergency declaration to build a wall — our Ruling Class believes the answer is “no.”

Why? Because secure borders, the Rule of Law, and an America-first immigration policy do not serve the interests of the globalist elitists in both parties. Elitists who portray themselves as servants of the people, even as they remain more disconnected from whom they ostensibly serve than at any time in recent history — and even as they remain wholly insulated from the policies they inflict on the rest of us.

Yet reality on the ground cannot be ignored. Data released by the DHS reveals that a new onslaught of illegals arrested or turned away at the border has reached levels not seen in years. Leon Fresco, an immigration attorney and member of a Homeland Security advisory committee formed by DHS Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen, asserts, “At the moment, we have the closest thing to an open border that we’ve had.”

Not quite. “In 2000, the number of U.S. Border Patrol apprehensions of illegal immigrants along the southwest border reached an all-time high of 1.6 million. Fast forward 17 years to 2017 and apprehensions plummeted to a record low of 303,000,” writes columnist Sylvia Longmire. “Many border security observers have credited everything from the border fence to improved surveillance technology to changing economic conditions for this drop.”

According to a 2017 Homeland Security report, DHS contends that 55% to 85% of immigrants crossing the border illegally were apprehended or interdicted in 2016. If one takes the record low of 303,000 apprehensions in 2017, and the DHS’s most self-serving apprehension rate of 85%, that leaves a record low of 45,450 illegal aliens successfully entering the United States in a single year.

Now go the other way. Take 2000’s 1.6 million, and apply the low end apprehension rate of 35% the DHS conceded they were reaching a decade ago. That leaves the possibility that as many a 1,040,000 illegals successfully entered the nation 19 years ago — which was 14 years after the 1986 Immigration Reform and Control Act granted unconditional amnesty to 2.7 million illegals — in exchange for securing the border and cracking down on businesses that hired illegals.

Note that even when “only” 45,450 illegals successfully broke into the country, government officials were speaking in terms of “success” and “credit.”

Some perspective? Nineteen Islamists perpetrated the September 11, 2001 atrocities, and three of the jihadis who crashed planes into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon had expired visas, meaning they were here illegally — when they slaughtered 2,977 Americans.

Yet how do leftists and their media allies rationalize all criminal activity committed by illegals? We’re told they commit crimes as lesser rates than native born Americans.

That this argument is given an iota of credence epitomizes the ideological bankruptcy of those who are never asked an essential question:

How many wholly avoidable crimes, in addition to being in America illegally, must Americans tolerate — lest they be deemed xenophobic or bigoted, no less — to accommodate globalist sensibilities?

Moreover, what is the hard number of illegals entering the nation Americans must tolerate? Border authorities are predicting that more than one million illegals will be stopped at the southern border this year.

More perspective? The are only 10 cities in the entire nation with populations that exceed one million.

And what breaks down? “As you know, every day, thousands of illegal aliens are being released into the United States by your administration,” stated the Texas union of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in a letter toTrump. “‘Catch and Release’ is not just happening — it’s in overdrive.”

Overdrive is an understatement. From December 21 to March 20, ICE released approximately 107,000 family members into the nation’s interior, including 1,000 released in a single day in the Rio Grande Valley.

On top of that, interior arrests are down 12% because ICE has had to shift resources to the border to deal with the increasing influx, and the immigration courts where illegals are supposed to show up and make their cases for being allowed to remain in America are “irredeemably dysfunctional and on the brink of collapse,” states a 2019 report by the American Bar Association.

As a result, approximately 1.1 million illegals from Mexico and Central America remain free in America until their cases are heard. How long will that take? “There were more than 760,000 pending cases at the end of FY 2018 and an additional 330,000 cases that could be returned to active dockets in short order,” the ABA report continued. Moreover, the average case takes 578 days to complete — for those who show up. In 2017, 43% of illegals didn’t appear for scheduled follow-up hearings.

Catch and release? Catch no longer has any real meaning, and illegals know it. They are now so well aware of how to game the system, they actively seek out border agents and claim asylum instead of evading arrest.

Remember that when you hear the advocates promoting “virtual” or “smart” walls. Again, only the ideologically bankrupt could assert that a physical barrier preventing illegals from crossing the border is inferior to one that merely locates those illegals for catch — and release.

Even more bankrupt? “According to the State Department, up to 17,500 — even up to 19,000 — foreign nationals are trafficked into the United States every year,” the Daily Caller reports. “Most of those, an estimated 70 percent, are trafficked from Mexico, and half of those are minors forced into prostitution.”

And because Congress fails to act, they abet this human trafficking.

Drugs? “Government data for 2018 shows more drugs were seized near open parts of the U.S.-Mexico border than were seized at ports of entry,” the Washington Examiner reports, ruining another leftist anti-wall argument that posited most drugs were coming through ports of entry. Again, what’s the acceptable level of non-port-of-entry drug smuggling “deplorable” Americans must abide?

Trump has vetoed the effort to prevent his entirely legal emergency declaration, and Congress has failed to override that veto, yet nagging questions remain unanswered. Will Democrats continue to be more concerned about illegal aliens than American citizens? Will the media keep insisting Americans’ desire to preserve national sovereignty is tantamount to white supremacy and/or Nazism? Will Trump himself stop talking the talk and begin walking the walk? (Hint: refurbishing previously existing barriers doesn’t count).

If not, and current trends hold, approximately 2,730 illegals will be apprehended and released by the Border Patrol — every day — in FY2019. And every one of those days, Americans will be told there’s no crisis at the border.

All because most members of Congress are now “AINOs” — Americans In Name Only.