Biden’s border blather is too little, too late

OPINION:

Late Friday night, on the weekend before Christmas, the Biden administration dumped the news that 233,740 immigrants crossed the U.S. southern border illegally in November — a 322% increase from the average number of November apprehensions during the Trump administration — making it the highest total for November in Department of Homeland Security history.

Two years ago, when President Biden took office, on day one, he stopped construction on the border wall and suspended the Trump-era “Remain in Mexico” policy. Border crossings subsequently surged. At the time, the Biden administration blamed the increase on “seasonal changes” and indicated they would be temporary.

They were not. In less than two years, Mr. Biden has racked up more than 1 million more illegal crossings than former President Donald Trump did throughout his entire four-year administration. Homeland Security Investigations estimates that Mexican cartels are now making $13 billion a year smuggling immigrants illegally into the U.S., 26 times what they made in 2018.

In the last fiscal year alone, 98 people on the terrorist watchlist crossed the border into the U.S. — nearly four times as many as in the last five years combined. And those were just the ones who were caught.

Don’t let Mr. Biden’s rhetoric fool you — he and Democrats in Congress are directly to blame for the border crisis. In his first 100 days in office, Mr. Biden took more than 94 executive actions to make our southern border more porous. Democrats in Congress have fought to support sanctuary cities and send stimulus checks to illegal immigrants. They have opposed legislation to fund Title 42, the hiring of more border agents, deporting felons and the prevention of illegal immigrants convicted of crimes from becoming permanent residents.

Early last month, 2,000 illegal immigrants lined up at the border wall in El Paso, Texas, waiting for Title 42 to expire. El Paso Mayor Oscar Leeser, a Democrat, was forced to declare a state of emergency, saying that “we have hundreds and hundreds [of migrants] on the streets” as crowded facilities reached close to five times their capacity.

As Fox News and other outlets have shown footage of illegal immigrants freely crossing the border on a daily basis, Mr. Biden’s team has accused Republicans of aiding the cartels by saying “the border is open” and spreading misinformation. Last month, Mr. Biden said there were “more important things going on” than visiting the border during his trip to Arizona. And in September, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi explained to the American people how illegal immigration was a good thing because U.S. farmers need them to “pick the crops.”

This week, however, the Biden administration had a change of heart. Perhaps it’s a recalibration after Democrats lost the House of Representatives in November. Perhaps it’s a cynical ploy to take advantage of Republicans’ disarray as they nominate a House speaker. Most likely of all, it is because Mr. Biden is going to announce his reelection campaign and knows illegal immigration remains the weak underbelly of his administration, with 61% of Americans disapproving of the job he’s doing, according to a recent CNN/SSRS poll.

So, on Thursday, Mr. Biden announced he would return to some Trump-era policies. His administration said that Mexico has agreed to take back up to 30,000 people a month who try to jump the border, akin to Mr. Trump’s “Remain in Mexico.” At the same time, he announced a new legal pathway to citizenship that would cover 30,000 people a month from four key countries, giving them a two-year permit to live and work in the U.S. — sounding more like a pathway to amnesty than a border security plan.

Much more will be needed to curb the current crisis. To repress illegal immigration, the Trump team used a combination of Title 42, “Remain in Mexico,” and restricted people from traveling across other countries to claim asylum in the U.S., ending catch-and-release. Mr. Biden is still fighting in the courts to end Title 42, and, under his administration, catch-and-release has been reinstated. Roughly 100,000 migrants a month have been caught and released during Mr. Biden’s tenure, according to estimates.

After two years of ignoring and denying there was a problem at the southern border, Mr. Biden at least acknowledged on Thursday that the border is “a difficult challenge.” Unfortunately, what he’s offering as solutions is way too little, too late.