What You Must Know About the Ongoing Border Crisis

Last week we reported on the ever-growing crisis on our southern border and the refusal of the Biden administration to even call it a crisis. This week the situation is even more dire and more out of control. In spite of this, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas stated on multiple news programs last weekend: “The border is closed. The border is secure.”

Really? It is one thing for officials in the administration to suspend their disbelief. It is quite another for them to ask the American people to do likewise.

Over 100,000 unlawful immigrants are illegally crossing the border each month. Border agents are overwhelmed and now have been instructed to send these immigrants into the country without even the standard summons to come back for an immigration hearing. Immigrants with COVID-19 have been released into the United States after crossing the border. Now over 500 unaccompanied children are being detained each day. As of last Saturday, 3,314 have been held in custody longer than the 72 hours allowed by regulation. Almost 1,000 have been held for almost two weeks. The conditions in which they are held are crowded and deplorable. There is a reason that, thus far, the administration has refused to grant access to the media into these facilities.

Many children are being led across the border by human traffickers and exploited sexually. Along the trek to America, some are assaulted and raped before entering the sex trade in our own country. It is estimated that human traffickers are making a combined $14 million a day in this ghastly business. The Trump administration policy of returning unaccompanied children to their home country has been reversed by the Biden administration, even though a U.S. appeals court found the United States is not legally obligated to accept undocumented children who cross the border without their parents.

The bottom line: We are surrendering control of the situation on the border to human traffickers. The administration is ceding territory to drug cartels, while placating those who are for open borders. Officials in Washington, D.C., are allowing political calculations to trump morality and human compassion, turning a blind eye to the obvious ramifications for national security, public safety, the economy and the expanse of the exploitation of children and youth.

The present administration has created new problems on the border and exacerbated the problems that already existed. The chaos is the result of numerous missteps: President Biden choosing not to use an existing emergency order to turn away kids at the border, ending the Migrant Protections Protocol (remain in Mexico while one’s request for entry is processed) and refusing to enforce the law that states if one crosses the border illegally, that person cannot apply for asylum.

The Biden administration has also suspended Operation Talon which deported any illegal immigrant guilty of sexual offenses. The Center for Immigration Studies reports that 2.1 million illegal immigrants released into the U.S. are also receiving the same COVID-19 stimulus checks for $1,400 that are going to others in our country.

Biden may as well have sent out engraved invitations for people to cross the border illegally. This is a crisis of the administration’s own making. It is not only regrettable; it is unnecessary.

It is a public safety issue, an economic issue and a national security issue. However, it is also plainly a moral issue. People in Mexico and Central America are given false hope about entering America. Upon arrival at the border, the personnel and facilities are totally inadequate to provide care and processing. Families become victims of the drug cartels. Children and youth become victims of human sex trafficking. U.S. citizens along the border have their property and safety put at risk.

In the name of all that is fair and decent, Biden must lead on this issue and stop the policies that are allowing this crisis to grow exponentially. He must rein in his officials who speak half-truths and untruths about what is happening on the southern border. Political considerations must be laid aside in order to send clear and compassionate messages to those who would come to America: We will enforce border security. Additionally, drug traffickers and human traffickers must be put on notice that we will not enable their practices to continue.

And those who are here illegally who commit crimes will be quickly deported. Enough is truly enough. {eoa}

For the original article, visit aclj.org.

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