OPINION:
Biden’s border crisis has worsened in recent weeks due to a massive invasion of illegal aliens in Del Rio, Texas. We spent time there recently investigating the extent and impact of the largest illegal immigration in our nation’s history to understand what happened and why.
In a span of eight days, more than 26,000 Haitian migrants arrived en masse and in a coordinated manner to Del Rio. Somebody had to coordinate the movement, the staging, and the transportation of that large number of people.
After all, the highest number of illegal aliens arriving in a single day at the border previous to Del Rio was a little over 1,000 to El Paso in May of 2019. Yet at Joe Biden’s “closed border,” more than 12,000 crossed the Rio Grande from tiny Ciudad Acuna into Del Rio in one day.
Did our intelligence community (IC) see this mass movement and simply fail to understand what was happening? Or did the IC comprehend and choose to keep that information from Customs and Border Protection (CBP) leaders?
Even more vexing proposition is that CBP brass knew but failed to act or notify the Del Rio Sector chief.
The CBP agents, Texas Department of Public Safety officers, and health care professionals had to scramble to deal with the arrival of a population of people as large as a small city illegally walking across the river. They did heroic work under impossible conditions.
Homeland Security Secretary Mayorkas expressed his surprise that 20% of illegal aliens crossing the border had a communicable disease. And yet, the Biden Administration continues transporting illegal immigrants to communities across the United States without legitimate vetting and limited COVID-19 testing. They’re being released on a hope and prayer that those illegal immigrants will self-report to law enforcement at a future date.
Despite this, all we have heard from the Biden administration on the border crisis they created is deflection, prevarications, and ultimately blame-shifting.
They attacked the horse patrol, claiming that the patrol was whipping an illegal alien. That story has been utterly debunked, and yet the President says he will make “them pay.” For what? For the Border Patrol patrolling our border?
Rather than seeing the horrific results of its border policies, this Administration focuses on fake news regarding the horse patrol rather than focusing on more than 200,000 illegal aliens crossing our border every month.
When 26,000 Haitian migrants overwhelmed agents in Del Rio, it forced Border Patrol to undertake an all-hands-on-deck effort and left 224 miles of the Texas-Mexico border completely open and unprotected. That means Mexican criminal cartels were able to send their drug runners and high-value individuals—people on the terror watch list, sex traffickers, and other serious criminals— into the country unopposed, without any chance of being interdicted.
President Biden says, “There is no border problem.” His spokesperson, Jen Psaki, echoes that refrain. Secretary Mayorkas prevaricates, “The border is closed.” Those statements are false and in direct conflict with reality on the border. Multiple groups of additional Haitian migrants are heading north to our border. In testimony before Congress last week, Department of Homeland Security officials conceded that those groups total between 60,000 and 70,000. Panamanian leaders confirm that number.
In the meantime, just under 10,000 individuals illegally cross into the United States every day.
The great men and women of the CBP, who worked so arduously to contain the flood of people into Del Rio, are now making preparations under the infamous Del Rio bridge and its surrounding area for another potential mass migration event. Although, we don’t know if this next wave will hit Del Rio, or El Paso, or Yuma, or some other area along our “closed border.” What is clear is that the Biden Administration’s open borders agenda is dangerous to America. The extreme use of catch-and-release is a threat to America’s sovereignty. Absent a policy change, the border crisis will only continue to get worse.
We call upon President Biden to support our CBP agents, secure our border, enforce our laws, and work with foreign governments, particularly Mexico, to stop this mass illegal migration.
• Andy Biggs is an American attorney and politician representing Arizona’s 5th congressional district in the United States House of Representatives. Clay Higgins is an American politician and reserve law enforcement officer representing Louisiana’s 3rd congressional district in the United States House of Representatives.
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