There’s a crisis at America’s southern border and, despite what Joe Biden tells us, the numbers don’t lie.

More than 1.7 million illegal aliens, a record number, were stopped at the southern border during the 2021 fiscal year, which ended September 30. Here’s some data to put it all in perspective: Over the last eight years, annual Border Patrol arrests averaged around 540,000. FY2021’s total was three times that number.

Additionally, more than 650,000 migrants were released into the U.S., with the Biden administration flying many of them across the country under the cover of darkness. And these numbers don’t include another 400,000 who evaded the Border Patrol.

Joe Biden basically campaigned last year on the immigration slogan, The border will be wide open when I win. Once in office, Biden and his side kick “Border Czar” Kamala Harris set about to do just that. They canceled the border wall. They ripped apart the whole border security apparatus of the United States. They handcuffed the Border Patrol and essentially abolished ICE.

It’s no wonder the numbers began to swell. These are potential future Democrat voters, after all, and Democrats want as many here as they can get.

And let’s not forget about the kids. Does an administration that boasts about compassion really think it’s compassionate to allow parents and relatives to pay smugglers to take their children to the U.S. border, and then allow them to be kept with strangers when they arrive in New York or are dropped off at a New Jersey rest stop? There are reports of parents waiting weeks to learn of their children’s whereabouts or to hear how they’re doing.

This news is causing outrage around the country, and we should demand that Biden and Harris change course.

There is some smoke and mirrors to that effect. Recently, we learned that the Remain in Mexico policy would be reinstated in response to a federal judge’s August ruling. But let’s be realistic. We’re two months past that ruling, and the administration has done nothing. Mark Morgan, the former acting commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Protection, doesn’t think Biden will follow through.

No doubt Morgan’s right. Any White House that secretly flies migrant children to cities around the United States in the middle of the night can’t be trusted to do anything on the up-and-up.

Asked to explain those secret flights, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki deflected, “Well, I’m not sure it’s in the middle of the night.” When pressed on her weaselly technicality, she admitted, “We are talking about early flights, earlier than you might like to take a flight.” Psaki’s argument about what “middle of the night” means is reminiscent of the insulting spin of Bill Clinton’s infamous attempt to redefine the word “is.”

Why fly migrants in the dark of night if the administration’s open-border policy is so popular or effective? The Federation for American Immigration Reform reminds us: “The current crisis on our border affects every state, not just those sharing a border with Mexico. Illegal aliens often don’t just settle near the border. In fact, high concentrations of illegal aliens reside in Florida, New York and New Jersey. The Biden administration must reverse course as their political agenda of open borders and mass amnesty is creating a crisis that carries potentially irreversible consequences.”

But reversing course only happens when leaders recognize or don’t want the damage they’re causing.

What most Americans consider a crisis is nothing more than part of the plan to Biden and company. This is intentional, and it’s not going to stop until we stand up and elect people who recognize our border and do what it takes to secure it.