As tens of thousands of illegal immigrants are either entering or preparing to enter the United States at our southern border with the end of Title 42, President Biden says the border will be “chaotic for a while.” But since Biden has had more than two years to deal with the illegal immigration crisis and has failed to do so, the “chaotic” situation at the border is no surprise.
On Wednesday — the day before the use of Title 42 was set to expire — Fox News reported on the state of the border:
Migrants are already arriving, with about 100 people coming across the border early Tuesday. Agents in El Centro, California, stopped about 260 migrants a day over the course of a four- or five-day period through Sunday. Sector chief Gregory Bovino said that was up from about 90 day during the previous week.
U.S. Border Patrol Chief Raul Ortiz said on Twitter Monday that his agents had stopped about 8,800 migrants a day over a three-day period. That was up from about 5,200 a day in March.
Online videos — including one accompanying the Fox News report — show lines of illegal immigrants preparing to cross the border. In many such videos, the lines appear endless. So, with tens of thousands waiting in queue to illegally enter the United States and thousands already having attempted to do so (with God only knows how many succeeding), Biden said Tuesday that things at the border are going to be “chaotic for a while.”
His remarks were in response to a reporter asking, “Is the United States ready for the surge of people that are going to come across the border starting later this week?” Biden responded, saying, “I spent close to an hour with the Mexican president today. We’re doing all we can. The answer is — it remains to be seen.” He added, “We’ve gotten overwhelming cooperation from Mexico. We also are in the process of setting up offices in Colombia and other places where someone seeking asylum can go first.” Then he said, “But it remains to be seen. It’s gonna be chaotic for a while.”
Following her boss’s lead in spinning this as an unforeseen crisis, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said, “We believe we have a robust process to deal with what is going to occur after Title 42 lifts. Again, we’re using the tools that are available to us because Congress refuses to do their job as it relates to the border.”
Biden’s remarks echoed what he told MSNBC in a recent interview. “I’ve asked this Congress for help in terms of what they need at the border,” Biden said, adding, “They need more agents. They need more people to clear people. They need more action.”
Such is the response Americans have come to expect from this administration: After more than two years of do-nothing policies where the border is concerned, Biden and company now want to pretend that their hands have been tied and that if only Congress would do something, the whole unforeseen fiasco would be well under control.
Except this is not that.
Biden did authorize sending 1,500 troops to the border, but since federal law prevents the military from enforcing the law — including immigration law — they will be there to “to clear people by doing data entry, warehouse support and other clerical and administrative tasks.” As Jean-Pierre put it, the military troops “will not be performing law enforcement functions or interacting with immigrants, or migrants,” but will be there to “free up Border Patrol agents to perform their critical law enforcement duties.”
Meanwhile, a viral video posted on Twitter by Todd Bensman, author of Overrun, How Joe Biden Unleashed the Greatest Border Crisis in U.S. History, shows Texas Department of Safety officers “blocking migrants from entering” the United States illegally.
And as for “clearing” illegal immigrants, it is obvious that even with the help of military personnel handling many of those tasks, the situation is already overwhelming the available resources. Another video posted to Twitter shows “Hundreds and Hundreds of migrants who just illegally crossed the border” who are “being transported to a processing center.”
And a Fox News clip posted to Twitter shows that while waiting for an opportunity to cross the border illegally, many on the Mexican side of the border are sustaining themselves by ordering food delivery via Door Dash.
All of this, of course, flies in the face of the claims last week by Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, who said, “The border is not open,” adding, “It has not been open, and it will not be open subsequent to May 11.” It is demonstrable that the border is open. The tens of thousands of illegal immigrants overwhelming Border Patrol officers as they attempt to cross — with untold numbers of them succeeding in doing so — prove that the border is open.
