The president’s border policy has been called a lot of things — a disaster, a cataclysmic failure, even political malpractice. But the most accurate description is the one nobody’s using — and that’s intentional. While people across America explode in frustration wondering why the White House won’t even use the word “crisis,” that’s because — to them — it isn’t one. As Lt. Governor Dan Patrick (R-Texas) pointed out, the emergency at the border could have only been created by three things. “It’s either negligence, stupidity, or the plan. It’s the plan.”

For Joe Biden and the handful of extremists who control the party, this is about ballots — not the border. “They want to control the elections and make this a one-party country,” Patrick argued. “And that’s what’s going on.” Democrats are playing the long game, even if it means sacrificing the party’s short-term success. The Left knows that opening the borders is a wildly unpopular idea, but they’re willing to take the heat if it means flooding the zone with tens of millions of illegal immigrants who can lay the groundwork for an invincible voting bloc in the future.

That would certainly explain the administration’s stubbornness over Title 42. Despite fierce objections from his own party, the president is a month away from lifting the only policy protecting the border from absolute chaos. Under the Trump-era rule, agents could invoke COVID as a reason to turn migrants away. Now, with that excuse set to expire May 23, Homeland Security is preparing for the border crossings to more than double from 7,000 a day to an inconceivable 18,000. It’s such a staggering number, Patrick explained, that by the end of Biden’s term, almost one out of every five Americans would be here illegally. “That’s 20 percent,” he said, “here [unlawfully]….”

“They drop out of [our] school[s]. They crowd our emergency rooms. They take jobs away from Americans. And the truth is, what do they do when they get here? Because without a Social Security number, you really can’t work. So the Biden administration… the next move you’ll see soon [is to] give everyone a green card. And that’s the pathway to citizenship [that provides this] pathway to voting. And then you have in the next decade or so, 30 or 40 million voters, many of them [who] will want to vote Democrat because [that’s] who brought them here.”

This is “absolutely” about elections, Patrick agreed — pointing to the Democrats’ walkout in Texas last year. When the state’s liberals broke quorum and fled to Washington, D.C., it wasn’t about the heartbeat bill. “We’ve saved about 30,000 babies’ lives just since that bill became law in September. Did they leave over that? No. We passed a bill to stop boys from playing girls’ sports. Did they leave and go to Washington over that? No. We passed [an] election integrity [bill] so that it’s… harder to cheat. That’s what they left for…”

But in the process of the Left’s power grab, we’re putting real people in harm’s way. Innocent kids are getting hurt. Taxpayers are getting hurt. Teenagers latching on to fentanyl are getting hurt. From a humanitarian perspective, this is an absolute disaster. “As Christians and Americans, we shouldn’t want people to come to America in the back of an 18-wheeler, where they suffocate. We shouldn’t want these children and women being sex trafficked, because we don’t know who they are. We don’t know where they’re being sent…” Patrick shook his head. “This is inhumane to people coming here. It’s dangerous.” And yet, the president doesn’t seem to care, he said.

When Texas Governor Greg Abbott (R) started bussing illegals caught at the southern border to D.C., it wasn’t just to make a statement. It was also to force the president to confront the mayhem he’s created. “Texas should not have to bear the burden of the Biden administration’s failure to secure our border.”

Neither should any other state, Governor Ron DeSantis (R-Fla.) argued. “To those who have entered the country illegally, fair warning: do not come to Florida. Life will not be easy for you, because we are obligated to uphold the immigration laws of this country, even if our federal government and other states won’t,” the governor’s office announced after some of the illegals said they were headed to Miami. “Florida is not a sanctuary state, and our social programs are designed to serve the citizens of our state… There is a legal process to obtain full American citizenship, which is an essential part of the promise of America. In Florida, we will uphold the law.”

In the meantime, the midnight flights will continue — sending migrants on unmarked planes to every corner of America, let loose for taxpayers to feed, clothe, house, medicate, and incarcerate. This is a constitutional crisis of Biden’s own making. One, unfortunately, of many.

This is a publication of the Family Research Council. Mr. Perkins is president of FRC.