You Make a Difference! Our mission and operations are funded entirely by Patriots like you! Please support the 2024 Year-End Campaign now.

January 31, 2024

Finally, Biden Admits: There’s a Crisis at the Border

A major step in the president admitting reality.

What do you call it when somewhere between 6 and 8 million people enter the United States illegally in the course of three years? Many people would call it a crisis, albeit a man-made one, since the reason so many have been able to cross illegally into the United States is the refusal, by President Joe Biden, to enforce immigration laws that authorize him to stop the incursion at any time.

For years, the Biden administration denied the seriousness of the situation and steadfastly refused to call the crisis a crisis. Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, in particular, has gone to great lengths to avoid the word. On many occasions Mayorkas has conceded that the situation is a “challenge,” but definitely, absolutely, totally not a crisis.

On March 1, 2021, as the Biden administration was just beginning its long, ambitious project to open the border, Mayorkas met the press in the White House briefing room and pointedly declined to call the situation on the border, in which the number of illegal crossers was already skyrocketing, a “crisis.” Mayorkas wouldn’t even discourage illegal crossers from coming to the border. He just asked them to wait a little while so the Biden administration could get things ready for them.

“We are not saying, ‘Don’t come,’” Mayorkas said. “We are saying, ‘Don’t come now because we will be able to deliver a safe and orderly process to them as quickly as possible.’”

And on it went. As the number of illegal crossings grew and grew, Mayorkas would declare, with a straight face, that the border was “closed.” He told potential illegal border crossers not to come while at the same time worked to increase the administration’s ability to process, care for, and relocate the illegal crossers. Talk about a mixed message. Nobody listened to the administration’s declaration that the border was “closed.” Instead, they just came right in, and, as promised, Biden allowed most of them to stay.

Through it all, the president would never agree that the situation on the border constituted a crisis. So now, fast forward to today’s standoff in the Senate over a bill that would include, all in one big package, aid to Ukraine, aid to Israel, aid to Taiwan and a far-reaching reworking of the immigration system. Biden has insisted that they must all be passed together, all or nothing. If Congress were to pass a bill with one or two of those provisions, but not the others, Biden has said he would veto it.

The problem with Biden’s ultimatum is that it is almost impossible to pass a far-reaching reworking of the immigration system. Lawmakers have tried and failed for decades. It is the most difficult and intractable issue in American politics. So Biden has linked desperately needed aid to Ukraine, for example, to passing an immigration bill, which reduces the chances of success to nearly zero.

With Congress deadlocked, Biden has begun to make wild promises. Campaigning in South Carolina recently, he said, “If that bill were the law today, I’d shut down the border right now and fix it quickly.” That’s hard to believe, to say the least. From the moment he became president of the United States, Biden has had the authority to stop or restrict the flow of illegal migrants into the U.S. He needs no new law to give him that authority. In fact, what the bill under consideration would actually do is regularize the arrival of up to 5,000 illegal migrants into the United States each and every day. Only if the level rose above that for a week would Biden take action to stop the flow. And even then, as always, there would be a lot of restrictions.

But give Biden this: In his desperate campaigning for an immigration bill, the president has done something else neither he nor anyone in his administration has ever done: He has admitted that the situation on the border is a crisis.

In a statement last Friday, Biden said he had directed administration officials “to begin negotiations with a bipartisan group of senators to seriously, and finally, address the border crisis.” He finished the statement with a challenge to Congress: “If you’re serious about the border crisis, pass a bipartisan bill and I will sign it.”

A crisis! Finally, Biden has conceded what has been obvious from nearly the moment he took office. That won’t make the Capitol Hill negotiations go any better — they are probably doomed to fail — but it is a major step in the president admitting reality.

This content originally appeared on the Washington Examiner at washingtonexaminer.com/daily-memo/2827440/biden-finally-admits-theres-a-crisis-at-the-border/.

Who We Are

The Patriot Post is a highly acclaimed weekday digest of news analysis, policy and opinion written from the heartland — as opposed to the MSM’s ubiquitous Beltway echo chambers — for grassroots leaders nationwide. More

What We Offer

On the Web

We provide solid conservative perspective on the most important issues, including analysis, opinion columns, headline summaries, memes, cartoons and much more.

Via Email

Choose our full-length Digest or our quick-reading Snapshot for a summary of important news. We also offer Cartoons & Memes on Monday and Alexander’s column on Wednesday.

Our Mission

The Patriot Post is steadfast in our mission to extend the endowment of Liberty to the next generation by advocating for individual rights and responsibilities, supporting the restoration of constitutional limits on government and the judiciary, and promoting free enterprise, national defense and traditional American values. We are a rock-solid conservative touchstone for the expanding ranks of grassroots Americans Patriots from all walks of life. Our mission and operation budgets are not financed by any political or special interest groups, and to protect our editorial integrity, we accept no advertising. We are sustained solely by you. Please support The Patriot Fund today!


The Patriot Post and Patriot Foundation Trust, in keeping with our Military Mission of Service to our uniformed service members and veterans, are proud to support and promote the National Medal of Honor Heritage Center, the Congressional Medal of Honor Society, both the Honoring the Sacrifice and Warrior Freedom Service Dogs aiding wounded veterans, the Tunnel to Towers Foundation, the National Veterans Entrepreneurship Program, the Folds of Honor outreach, and Officer Christian Fellowship, the Air University Foundation, and Naval War College Foundation, and the Naval Aviation Museum Foundation. "Greater love has no one than this, to lay down one's life for his friends." (John 15:13)

★ PUBLIUS ★

“Our cause is noble; it is the cause of mankind!” —George Washington

Please join us in prayer for our nation — that righteous leaders would rise and prevail and we would be united as Americans. Pray also for the protection of our Military Patriots, Veterans, First Responders, and their families. Please lift up your Patriot team and our mission to support and defend our Republic's Founding Principle of Liberty, that the fires of freedom would be ignited in the hearts and minds of our countrymen.

The Patriot Post is protected speech, as enumerated in the First Amendment and enforced by the Second Amendment of the Constitution of the United States of America, in accordance with the endowed and unalienable Rights of All Mankind.

Copyright © 2024 The Patriot Post. All Rights Reserved.

The Patriot Post does not support Internet Explorer. We recommend installing the latest version of Microsoft Edge, Mozilla Firefox, or Google Chrome.