Biden Tries to Hide an Obvious Crisis at Border~Former DHS Chief Chad Wolf: Perverse Incentives Fueling Border Crisis
BY REP. DREW FERGUSON
SEE: https://www.dailysignal.com/2021/03/26/biden-tries-to-hide-an-obvious-crisis-at-border;
republished below in full unedited for informational, educational & research purposes:
The full-blown humanitarian crisis on the southern border ultimately could threaten the safety and security of every single American. The Biden administration has failed to properly acknowledge the severity of the situation and seemingly is in total denial of just how dire the circumstances are.
Even more alarming, President Joe Biden has imposed a gag order on U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents, instructing the agency’s press officers to deny all ride-along requests and refer all questions—even from local reporters—to Washington for approval.
The Biden administration is trying to hide and impose censorship on the border crisis that everyone already knows is underway. In the past month alone, nearly 100,000 illegal immigrants have attempted to unlawfully enter our nation.
It’s clear that the administration’s slew of executive actions and policies have incentivized this illegal behavior, leading to an extreme uptick of criminal crossings. According to Customs and Border Protection, migrant encounters along the southern border are up 28% since January and up 173% since this time last year.
Keep in mind, these migrants aren’t adults only but also children and family units. Customs and Border Protection expects about 13,000 unaccompanied migrant children to reach the border by May and 117,000 by the end of the year. Apprehensions of family units are up 317% since last February.
Nearly one-third of migrants have been affected by human trafficking or other exploitative practices along their route. Some migrant women have shared that, as The New York Times reported, “sexual violence has become an inescapable part of the collective migrant journey.”
The rush we are seeing to cross the Rio Grande is a direct result of the Biden administration’s efforts to weaken border security, virtually eliminate enforcement of U.S. immigration laws, put a moratorium on deportations, and promise amnesty to undocumented immigrants residing in the country illegally.
The administration also put a stop to the construction of the border wall, reinstated “catch and release,” and tied the hands of immigration enforcement officers.
The Biden administration recently awarded $86 million to cover hotel costs for migrants at the border in Texas and Arizona. These migrants are entering our country illegally, but instead of being sent back, they are greeted with hotel accommodations. That’s just plain wrong.
We also know that drug cartels actively are exploiting the administration’s dismal immigration stance to cross our southern border. Nationwide, drug seizures increased 50% in February from a month earlier.
Several known terrorists, or others reasonably suspected of terrorism, are capitalizing on this influx of migrants to fly under the radar and infiltrate our nation through our porous borders.
Without question, the Biden administration has failed to be transparent about the problem or even acknowledge that it is a crisis. Despite this, the administration deployed the Federal Emergency Management Agency—which coordinates the response to disasters in the U.S. and is another part of the Department of Homeland Security—to assist in handling this surge in migrants. If that doesn’t constitute a crisis, what does?
The administration’s immigration policies are in fact a disaster, and they have failed monumentally as this crisis has developed.
It’s deeply concerning that House Democrats’ answer to this growing problem has been to pass two bills that will further incentivize and reward illegal immigration with amnesty.
To be clear: Whether Democrats like it or not, this is a full-blown national security and humanitarian emergency.
Our country cannot afford politically motivated policies that make our borders less secure, fail to uphold the rule of law, and damage public health.
But those are exactly the kind of policies President Biden has enacted since Day One of his presidency, and they have accelerated the crisis at the southern border dangerously. We need an immigration policy that prioritizes securing the border and protecting the health and safety of Americans first.
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Sen. Blackburn: Drug cartels are 'running the border'
Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) shared what she saw during her trip to the southern border. One America's John Hines has more from Washington.
'Whatever You Do, We're Coming': Coyotes Heckle Senators at the Border
BY RICK MORAN
republished below in full unedited for informational, educational & research purposes:
Eighteen Republican senators decided to see for themselves what was happening at the border so they took a little excursion to Texas, visiting several border facilities run by the Border Patrol.
The trip to the border became necessary because the Biden administration has imposed a near-total news blackout on what’s happening there. The administration flunkie who was escorting the senators even asked that the lawmakers delete any pictures, a request echoed by border officials. Not surprisingly, the GOP senators refused to comply.
Indiana Senator Mike Braun described some of what he saw.
Those photos showed children as young as 3 years old jammed into the facilities that Braun described as the worst situation for migrants in 20 years. He earlier provided Secrets with a video of migrants being held by the dozens under a bridge.
In a debriefing of the tour, Braun said that one of the first stops was with border agents at the edge of the Rio Grande, where illegal immigrants typically cross. There, he said, the “coyotes,” who charge $4,000 to $20,000 to get migrants across, heckled the group in Spanish.
“All of a sudden to hear from the other side of the river taunting from the smugglers and coyotes, most of it in Spanish, telling the border guards that ‘whatever you do, we’re coming,’” said Braun. “That kind of hit home in such an anecdotal way because it is one story that kind of is a metaphor for what’s happening all up and down the border,” he added.
“A big welcome sign was put out,” said Braun. “I think it was a political blunder.”
Sen. Ted Cruz describes seeing “cage after cage after cage” of children.
The Biden administration has made a big show of telling would-be migrants to stay away—that the law is the law and they will be deported if they showed up at the border. But the reality is far different.
U.S. agents in south Texas are not expelling Central American families with children younger than seven years of age to Mexico, according to a senior Border Patrol official who requested anonymity during a call with reporters Friday. Some of the migrant families encountered in south Texas are being flown to other Border Patrol sectors, like El Paso, and sent to Mexico from there, the official confirmed.
“We’re still leveraging Title 42 in other areas,” the Border Patrol official said, referring to the expulsions policy, which was first authorized by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in March 2020.
Mr. Biden and Department of Homeland Security (DHS) officials have said that while they would like to expel most Central American families to Mexico under the Title 42 public health authority, Mexican authorities in the state of Tamaulipas, across from the Rio Grande Valley, are not accepting young children traveling with parents.
According to the Customs and Border Patrol, 86 percent of families processed at the border have been allowed into the U.S without being deported. There were 6,000 apprehensions at the border on Thursday and virtually none of the migrants were sent back.
Biden looked into the cameras during his press conference and said “nothing has changed” at the border. That was a lie. He said most people were being deported. That was a lie. He said the surge in unaccompanied minors at the border is normal. He lied. He’s allowing the release of illegal aliens into the country without giving them a court date. And he’s allowing unvetted sponsors to take children from border facilities.
Biden is getting away with his lies because, in addition to the media being in his pocket, he’s preventing any bad news from leaking out by muzzling the press.
Biden can improve the situation immensely by reimposing some Trump-era policies. But he’d better do it quickly. If the border isn’t already out of control, it soon will be.
Report: Border Crossings by Unaccompanied Children Will Rise Sharply in April
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Texas rancher says migrants entering property: 'Never seen it at this level'
John Sewell, Texas ranch owner, fears for his family's safety amid border crisis.
'The Five' react to 'shocking' images of facilities holding children at border
Sen. Lankford Says over 700 Migrants Crammed into Pod "Designed for 80" at Detention Facility
"[Migrant children] were taking turns laying down on the floor because there's no space ... None of this was true three months ago. Literally, when President Biden came in and announced that he was changing the policy, they showed us the stats and showed how it skyrocketed," Sen. James Lankford said Friday at a migrant facility in Donna, Texas.