The Patriot Post® · The Ever-Worsening Biden Border Crisis
As the number of migrants illegally flowing across the U.S. southern border accelerates, the Biden administration is running out of facilities to house these illegals and has decided to charter flights to fly them up to states on the northern border. Read that again. Slowly.
“Border officials requested the air support from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement,” The Washington Post reports, “because 1,000 members of families and unaccompanied minors crossed the Rio Grande on Friday morning, and border agents have another 1,000 migrants they have been unable to process since [Thursday] night, the communications show.” As of Saturday, the Border Patrol had more than 5,000 unaccompanied minors in custody.
Speaking of detained migrant families, it was recently revealed that the Biden administration has quietly ended long-term detentions. The Washington Times reports, “Now, with long-term detention over, families are either held for a few days for processing or released outright at the border without any ICE detention. In either case, they are generally free to make their way deeper into the country with deportation hearings years down the line.” This is an example of Joe Biden creating yet another pull factor for migrants, underscoring that this current border crisis is of his own doing, not Donald Trump’s, as the administration is falsely seeking to spin it.
The Biden administration is scrambling to contain the “humanitarian crisis” that has turned into what Texas Governor Greg Abbott described as “a complete disaster.” DHS now plans on spending $86 million in taxpayer funds to put up thousands of illegal migrants in hotels for upwards of six months. DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas defended the decision, explaining that the U.S. is “on pace to encounter more individuals on the southwest border than we have in the last 20 years.”
Again, this crisis is entirely thanks to Biden reversing Trump’s effective border enforcement policies. On Sunday, Trump blasted Biden for turning “a national triumph into a national disaster.” Trump also leveled blame at Mayorkas, stating, “The pathetic, clueless performance of Secretary Mayorkas on the Sunday Shows today was a national disgrace. His self-satisfied presentation — in the middle of the massive crisis he helped engineer — is yet more proof he is incapable of leading DHS. Even someone of Mayorkas’ limited abilities should understand that if you provide Catch-and-Release to the world’s illegal aliens then the whole world will come.”
Even Mexican authorities are siding with Trump. No less than The New York Times reports, “Some Mexican officials argue that [Trump’s] harsh policies may have at times helped lessen their load by deterring migrants from attempting to make the journey north.”
Meanwhile, the Biden administration is spinning its failed border policies as advancing a moral humanitarian effort versus that of the “immoral” policies of the Trump administrations. And yet, such claims belie reality, as the humanitarian crisis has only escalated under Biden’s mismanagement. As Trump’s former special advisor Stephen Miller observed, “What humanitarian principle is served by rewarding and encouraging the brutal monstrous trafficking of minors? What value or humanitarian principle is served by making it easier for criminal organizations to savagely assault innocent men, women, and children, for-profit, because that is what is happening right now.”
Trump also replied to Biden’s criticism stating, “We proudly handed the Biden Administration the most secure border in history. All they had to do was keep this smooth-running system on autopilot. Instead, in the span of a just few weeks, the Biden Administration has turned a national triumph into a national disaster. … They are causing death and human tragedy. In addition to the obvious, drugs are pouring into our country at record levels from the Southern Border, not to mention human and sex trafficking. This Administration’s reckless policies are enabling and encouraging crimes against humanity.”
Furthermore, the Biden administration is seeking to hide its “humanitarian” border efforts from the nation as officials refuse to grant media access to Customs and Border Protection. Veteran photojournalist John Moore explained, “I respectfully ask US Customs and Border Protection to stop blocking media access to their border operations. I have photographed CBP under Bush, Obama and Trump but now — zero access is granted to media.” Thus, he added, “These long-lens images [were] taken from the Mexican side.”
This disaster is only growing, and no matter how Biden and the Democrats try to spin this as Trump’s fault, the reality on the ground defies such a blatantly false characterization. Even Democrat Representative Sheila Jackson Lee recognizes it, recently admitting, “The plan does not look like it’s working.” But like a good Democrat, she offered the caveat “at this time” and blindly doubled down: “But you have to get it implemented.”
Trump had largely ended much of the problem by closing down many of the pull factors that enticed migrants to make the journey in the first place. Simply put, Trump turned off the tap; Biden has turned it back on, full blast, and now he’s attempting to blame Trump for the mess. Biden, who is heeding the demands of his radical leftist handlers, owns this disaster.
(Updated.)