Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas has given himself an “A” grade on border enforcement, underscoring that the Biden administration’s agenda is not stopping illegal immigration but maintaining a de facto open border. Sitting before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday, Mayorkas lamented that the U.S. immigration system is “fundamentally broken — a fact that everyone agrees upon.” It’s definitely broken, but that’s because Mr. Straight A Student here helped break it.

He then pivoted and foisted blamed onto Congress, asserting, “Congress must pass legislation to fix it.” But it wasn’t Congress that forced Joe Biden into reversing almost all of Donald Trump’s enforcement actions that were proving effective in bringing the border under control. In fact, there was no border crisis until Biden took up residence in the White House.

Furthermore, Mayorkas’s willful de-enforcement of the U.S. border is why there are record numbers of illegal aliens crossing over. Illegal crossings surged 128% this October over October 2020, with 164,303 illegals apprehended. It’s the worst October ever. And in FY2021 — in other words, since it became clear to potential migrants that Open-Borders Biden was likely to win — Border Patrol agents apprehended a record 1.6 million illegals. How many evaded capture?

The most disingenuous thing about Mayorkas blaming Congress is that the Biden administration — and Candidate Joe before that — has welcomed this crisis to pressure Congress into granting millions of illegal aliens U.S. citizenship, all for the political aim of creating millions of new Democrat voters.

Meanwhile, despite its claims otherwise, the Biden administration is effectively turning a blind eye to the human suffering its border policies have created. When question by Texas Senator Ted Cruz regarding the spiking numbers of “kids in cages” — a talking point that Democrats repeatedly harped on during the Trump administration regarding the detaining of unaccompanied minors — Mayorkas played dumb. “Senator, I respectfully disagree with your use of the term ‘cages,’” Mayorkas opined, later adding, “I, respectfully, am not familiar with the term ‘cages’ and to what you are referring.”

Maybe he could refresh his memory here. Maybe they’re only cages when a Republican is president.

According to Customs and Border Protection, the current number of unaccompanied minors in custody is 3,200. Meanwhile, Biden is considering a payout of $450,000 per adult to families that were separated while trying to cross our border illegally.

But ballooning numbers of unaccompanied minors are just the tip of Biden’s border crisis. Drug trafficking and human trafficking are spiking as well, with dire consequences. In the last 12 months, there were a record 100,000 overdose deaths in the U.S., primarily due to fentanyl. In October alone, Border Patrol seized 899 pounds of fentanyl and 15,631 pounds of methamphetamine. The Biden administration is touting these numbers as evidence of great success, but the reality is just the opposite. As Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health’s Joshua Sharfstein observes, “If they’re seizing a lot, it’s because a lot is coming in.”

Drug cartels are making bank to the tune of billions of dollars, both in the trafficking of drugs and in the smuggling of migrants across the border. In fact, without permission and “help” from the cartels, no migrants get across the border.

According to recently retired Border Patrol agent Dan Cantu: “They call those [who cross on their own] ‘chapulines’ … which means grasshoppers in Spanish. It’s common knowledge that the minute they try to freelance — as soon as they do — smugglers and recruiters [for the cartels] will notice … [and] they’ll flat out kill them.” Cantu further noted, “The chapulines experience all kinds of torture, because [the cartels] have got to send a message … there is a price for attempting to traverse the border yourself.” And, of course, these cartels charge a hefty fee for their “service.”

Adding to the cartel exploitation is the work by leftist nonprofit organizations working with the Biden administration to spread these illegal aliens across the country — that is, to facilitate the human trafficking. The Biden administration is “allowing these migrants, many of whom are unknown to U.S. law enforcement agencies, to board commercial aircraft, creating one of the greatest threats to U.S. national security since September 11, 2001,” explained Representative Lance Gooden (R-TX). “It is time for transparency and accountability for everyone involved in exacerbating this crisis.” Indeed.