Biden Has Effectively Opened Our Border. He Is Once Again Vindicating Trump | Opinion
By: Ben Carson (MSN)
Yep. Smooth move.
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
President Biden has been caught flat footed again in yet another avoidable disaster. Early in his term, Biden and members of his administration failed to comprehend that their rollback of President Trump's successful border policies were incentivizing an unprecedented surge of illegal immigrants at the southern border. As a result, the number of people risking the dangerous journey to our southern border has continued to rise, even during the treacherous summer months, even during a global pandemic.
© Felix Marquez/AP Photo The U.S. is flying Haitians camped in a Texas border town back to their homeland and blocking others from crossing the border from Mexico. Migrants, many from Haiti, wade across the Rio Grande river from Del Rio, Texas, to return to Ciudad Acuna, Mexico, Monday, Sept. 20, 2021, to avoid deportation from the U.S.
We are encountering more people at our southern border than any other time in the last 21 years. Two months in a row, the numbers exceeded 200,000; in August 2021, the numbers represented a 317 percent increase over August of last year.
And now, another self-inflicted disaster has overcome the already beleaguered Border Patrol. Recently, close to 15,000 people, most of them Haitians, gathered under the International Bridge in Del Rio, Texas. Thousands camped out in quickly deteriorating conditions, awaiting Border Patrol processing as hundreds more simply walked across the river. It was not until the Texas National Guard and Texas Department of Public Safety stepped in that the illegal crossings stopped, only to continue at other parts of the river.
This is not Texas's job; control of borders is a characteristic of national sovereignty and therefore one of the core responsibilities of the national government. Indeed, the Supreme Court has ruled that immigration enforcement is exclusive to the federal government, and states are prohibited from taking steps to enforce federal immigration law.
Yet the federal government under Biden's leadership is failing in this most fundamental of tasks, leaving Texas border cities overwhelmed and necessitating some sort of action.
Now, in an attempt to show the American public that it's doing something to solve the flood of illegal immigration (it's not), the Biden Administration is selling a "comprehensive strategy" to address the increase in migrants in Del Rio. The plan includes a surge of U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents and officers and coordination with Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the U.S. Coast Guard.
This strategy is really just a badly-played game of whack-a-mole. These efforts will do nothing to stop the flow of migrants; instead, they put public safety and national security at risk.
The plan's follies include closing ports of entry—which harms legitimate travel and trade—and pulling Border Patrol officers from other critical locations, meaning that drug traffickers, smugglers, and other criminals can game the system and walk right in elsewhere. And that's without discussing the fiscal irresponsibility of spending massive amounts of dollars to respond to avoidable and foreseeable conflicts.
The Administration was warned of the brewing crisis. Not only were they warned right after the election, but as far as the chaos currently in Del Rio is concerned, Customs and Border Protection has been sounding the alarm since early summer.
Unfortunately, instead of heeding the advice of well-informed officials, Biden ousted a 29-year veteran because he actually tried to do his job in good faith and reduce illegal immigration. The administration let far-left politics overcome rational border policies and made wholesale changes to a working border system just because they didn't like the guy who put them in place originally.
The situation is already bad, and will get much worse. We are relying on the migrants to stay peaceful. There are another 20,000 Haitians "staging" in Colombia. And a recent federal court ruling blocked the use of Title 42 authority for families, which has been the main tool to turn migrants away. This, too, will further incentivize migrant families to cross illegally.
Despite the Administration saying the border is closed, their actions show otherwise and reveal their true agenda. Like an open wound, if left untreated, it will fester. Rather than treating the wound, the Administration is merely putting band-aids on the problem because they have no desire to solve the issue.
It's hard to be this incompetent without some effort. We were told that the adults were back in charge when President Trump left office, but it's clear they are only playing politics and have no idea how to actually run the government. Assuming that they intend the obvious consequences of their actions, the Biden Administration appears to view success as processing migrants quickly and then releasing as many as possible to disappear into the country unsupervised. And they are succeeding at that.
Once again, Biden's failures at the border have vindicated Trump's successful efforts to do what every functional country must and secure its national borders.
Americans deserve a secure border. Unfortunately, their president doesn't seem to agree.
Dr. Ben Carson is the Founder and Chairman of the American Cornerstone Institute and the 17th Secretary of HUD.
The views in this article are the writer's own.
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But Ms. Harris said don't come.................don't people listen? /s
How many did they just bench and are talking about punishing for doing their jobs? I bet the hiring numbers for CBP aren't looking very good.
Probably not very good at all.
I would imagine not.....
It was bad optics and a rush to judgement.
I agree that it was a rush to judgement. That it was bad optics falls on the administration. If there wasn't a crisis on the border then that wouldn't have happened
Same ole crisis Greg, just a different Administration.
Remember the invading caravans in 2017 which spiked in 2019?
SSDD
btw the Haitian surge is reportedly stopped, 8000 to stay in Mexico
5,000 going through the US administrative processes
2,000 returned to Haiti so far.
also, the CBP should get its stories straight and stick to one or the other.
First the 'twirling' was being used to guide the horse, ( which I have never heard of)
then (more likely) the sound was supposed to intimidate the Haitians and
keep them from interfering with the horses, the twirling was supposedly approved by the WH,
just not to strike the Haitians and there doesn't appear to be any evidence of that.
Still I would not want to be on the business end of working cow horses.
Yes, same ole crisis, just at a level that it hasn't been for two decades. Definitely a different administration, one that came in and dismantled the previous administration's immigration policies, seemingly without any thought to what the ramifications of what that might be "because Trump".
Wrong again. Trump fought to secure our border. Biden has done jack shit of nothing; except to encourage more to come. Let us know when you see the national guard being deployed to take over handling the illegal immigrant camps to free up the border patrol to actually do their job and keep illegals out. When they start using flash bangs and tear gas again to drive illegals away. The numbers aren't even close.
The word for this is unprecedented.
Really? Think those 5000 are going to show up for their hearings? Those 8,000 are really going to stay in Mexico? And someone forgot to tell the Haitians in South America that are now coming north in record numbers.
Biden pulled BP from other entry points in Texas to take care of Del Rio. The illegals simply switched entry points to the newly unguarded crossings.
The only people that need to get their damn story straight are Biden, the Democrats, and the damn leftist media. The photographers that took the pictures even state there pictures are being misrepresented. They saw no evidence of Haitians being beaten by the BP, or trampled by the horses they road.
Biden and the Democrats caused this. Trying to claim it is the same old, same old, is an absolute lie.
More partisan anger, color me shocked this fine Saturday morning.
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So, presenting facts that oppose your statements of "Opinion" are to be considered "partisan anger"???
Got it.
Nope, just the daily experience of reading one partisan rancor filled comment after another from him in particular.
Biden, idiot. Dems, bad. Leftist media, bad.
That one apparently can't help himself, even when he agrees with "my opinion" he has to make it seem like he didn't.
I forgot.
Trump was the greatest POTUS ever and built the best fences ever and never had a border problem /S
And, I've got a bridge in central AZ that I'll be glad to sell ya.
Gotta 'member - "opinions" are like noses - everybody has one - regardless of whether it's right or wrong - depending on the listener/reader and form of communication.
Lived in Tubac. Hated the monsoon season. Those bridges are only needed 2 weeks a year
You would've hated the monsoon this year - five straight days of rain. Weeds loved it.
Weeds are the roaches of the plant world, indestructible.
Have had the same over here in Cochise County in SE AZ on the border.
The blind partisan loyalty you hold on full display. Not shocking at all.
If you have ever read any of my comments I can't stand Trump.
I didn't vote for either Hillary or Trump the first time around; and I only voted for Trump the second time as the Republicans were the lesser of two evils.
I never once claimed that "Trump was the greatest POTUS ever and built the best fences ever and never had a border problem"
I have said repeatedly I do not want Trump as the Republican nominee; but if it comes down to Trump and any POS Democrat- then it will be Trump again.
But hell, since you feel the need to single me out. Let me make this very clear to you in no uncertain terms, and there is no misunderstanding.
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Don't have that problem much down around Douglas. I am always amused when I hear about "monsoons". What most folks call monsoons in the states, I call spring and summer showers. Having spent years in SE Asia, now those were real monsoons and it rained for almost 6 months of the year. One could hold their hands out in front of you at arm's length and not see your hand cause it was raining so hard. Now that's a real monsoon!
LOL, I hear that. My BIL still lives in Tuscon and calls them monsoons, I just love to mock him about it.
Really don't understand the weather patterns this year. We've been getting 'bout an hour shower each evening for the past three weeks - two months past our "monsoon" season. Kinda great in that I don't need to have the sprinkler system on (12 rose bushes) every day - 'specially at the end of the month when the water/gas bill comes in
We had a house in Fort Mohave and we weren't there much.
I had a well for the irrigation system and washer machine.
They replaced our meter and a couple of days later they call
and say they've turned the water off for a leak under the slab
Called a plumber and the only thing he could find was an needle valve in the kitchen dripping.
I think a toilet was stuck or something and once the water was turned off it reseated.
But the water bill was $360.00
Heartburn.
If Joey has a bridge with 15,000 people under it, and we send 2000 people away - How many people does Joey still have under the bridge? None, because he's hiding them all.
Dr. Ben Carson is exactly right.
He has a partisan viewpoint and has cherry picked some statistics.
Big deal.
He just wants to be one of Trump's useful, faithful
and the 19th Director of HUD in the future.
Homeland’s Alejandro Mayorkas Says 12,000 Haitian Migrants Released – Deadline
No they don't. The amount of people in the camp was not static, they were being processed as quickly as possible and the
magic number of 15,000 was just an estimate for any one day. Many of the Haitians are eligible for TPS anyway.
There is an existing TPS program in court that Trump tried to end.
Anticipating the courts might strike it down DHS established a separate Haiti TPS program in June, 2021.
The courts upheld the older TPS program and DHS is extending it by 15 months.
12,000 isn't staggering. It's just a small number by comparison.
CBP processes 288 million people annually, that's staggering.
Reagan owns the record (so far) for most apprehensions in 1986, 1,692,544
ironically the last time immigration reform was passed by Congress.
And yet the years of Reagan, Bush, Clinton and Bush were 20 of the worst 21 years on record.
U.S. Border Patrol Total Apprehensions (FY 1925 - FY 2020) (cbp.gov)
Not only that, but CBP estimates that up to the year 2000, two immigrants passed through the border for every one
that was apprehended. Improvements in surveillance technology are reflected in the chart.
Is it a bad year, certainly. Is it a reflection on Biden? No more so than 2019 was a nightmare year for Trump.
No more so than is was a reflection on Reagan Clinton or both Bush Presidencies or Eisenhower in 1954.
Did any of those previous presidents, upon entering office, undo as much of their predecessors immigration policies? Apparently without any forethought "because Trump".
Yes,
Trump tried to undo every Obama thing he could lay his hands on.
Obama pretty successfully undid all of Bush's immigration policies.
In a strange turnaround, Title 42 was sued under the Trump Administration and finally get to court.
The Biden Administration ( DOJ) is defending the Title 42 policy and has used it to expel or deny entry to over 1.1 Million migrants.
You have to appreciate that irony.
The differences in the poutrage between 1954 and 1986 was that the internet was in it's infancy in 1983,
The internet as we now know was crude but useful in 1997.
As of 2021 there are now 298 million internet capable smartphones.
The problem we used to have was an uniformed public waiting for Newsweek or Life or Forbes every month,
now we get misinformation in real time and it often takes a few days to parse the truth out
of the latest headlines and rushes to judgement are all too frequent.
Perhaps that was the reason for this current exodus? Wouldn't be surprising from this administration. Better hurry......
Secretary Mayorkas Designates Haiti for Temporary Protected Status for 18 Months | Homeland Security (dhs.gov)
No need for me to hurry, lol.
Not Haitian, never been there and not interested in going there.
Other than Hawaii, I have never been impressed by an island yet.
There's poverty everywhere even in the states but for the most part the states
have hope and opportunity
Those islands have nothing to offer
Thousands of mostly Haitian migrants traverse Panama on way to United States (msn.com)