The “borders are not open,” protested Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas while visiting Del Rio, Texas, where the border was apparently open for several thousand primarily Haitian migrants to cross into the U.S. in the last week. The reality is, of course, that Joe Biden deliberately opened the border even before he took office by virtue of his promises to end the “cruel” border security policies of Donald Trump and to welcome with open arms anyone seeking the broadest definition of asylum.

It’s true, the words Mayorkas spoke sounded tough: “If you come to the United States illegally, you will be returned. Your journey will not succeed and you will be endangering your life and your family’s lives. This administration is committed to developing safe, orderly, and humane pathways for migration. This is not the way to do it.”

But the actions of the Biden administration in the last nine months have spoken far louder.

Even aside from the obvious welcome mat, Team Biden’s enforcement has been lackluster. The Department of Homeland Security said Wednesday that 4,600 of the Del Rio migrants have been removed from under the bridge, but only 1,400 have been deported back to Haiti. Were the other 3,200 released into the U.S. with nothing but a court date? DHS won’t say, but many have been sent to other border towns for processing.

Still, some enforcement is better than none. There are reportedly around 6,000 migrants remaining under that Del Rio bridge, as many others voluntarily returned to Mexico to await asylum after hearing of deportations. It’s amazing what a deterrent enforcement can be.

We asked it Monday, but still among the most pressing questions is how this particular caravan of Haitians got to the border in the first place. For the geographically challenged, Haiti does not physically border the U.S. or Mexico — the Gulf of Mexico stands between them. Some number of them were reportedly living in South America for a decade, but how did they all gather together to cross the border en masse?

Did Mexico bus them to the border from its own holding facilities? Perhaps, though obviously without an official announcement.

Part of the answer is simply that word has gotten out around the globe that the way into the U.S. is through the southern border. In this fiscal year, there have been 1.5 million migrants encountered by the Border Patrol (an unknown number evade detection). Roughly a fifth are from countries other than Mexico or the Northern Triangle — Honduras, El Salvador, and Guatemala. In the last two months, migrants from these other nations have become the majority, and 90% of them come from Brazil, Cuba, Ecuador, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Venezuela.

That’s a problem new to the Biden era.

Their reasons for crossing are twofold — economic interest brought about by pandemic upheaval in South America and Biden’s welcome mat. Just ask them.

As for the Biden administration, aside from Mayorkas there’s been tougher criticism of the U.S. Border Patrol than rebuke of people who would break our laws by entering the country illegally. Biden’s Press Secretary Jen Psaki lamented “horrific video of the CBP officers on horses using brutal and inappropriate measures against innocent people.” Her despicable slander was uttered even after the allegation had been proven false.

Nevertheless, Psaki later announced the the Border Patrol will no longer be using horses in Del Rio for the time being.

Other Democrats are decrying the racism of it all. “I’m pissed,” railed Representative Maxine Waters. “I’m unhappy and I’m not just unhappy with the cowboys who were running down Haitians and using their reins to whip them.” Again, this had been proven false by the time Waters repeated the claim. But repeat she did. “What we witnessed was worse than what we witnessed in slavery … cowboys with their reins, again, whipping black people.”

Likewise, Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley decried the “cruel, the inhumane, and flat out racist treatment” of Haitian migrants, also calling for an investigation of the “white supremacist behavior of Border Patrol agents in Del Rio.”

Daniel Foote, the U.S. special envoy for Haiti, resigned over the deportations. “I will not be associated with the United States inhumane, counterproductive decision to deport thousands of Haitian refugees and illegal immigrants to Haiti,” he complained.

Of course, as with Senator Chuck Schumer’s phony criticism of the “hateful and xenophobic Trump policies” being perpetuated by the Biden administration, these objections are all for show. Biden is tough — too tough — you see. Or so these Democrat hucksters want you to think.

The real tragedy is that Biden’s supposed “more humane” immigration stance has resulted in a humanitarian crisis at the border. Thousands of migrants with nothing but what they could carry are living in squalor under a bridge because they believe Ole Joe will let them stay.

(Updated.)