Quite often you will regularly hear GOP/MAGAs angrily complain that the “border is open” — as if people are just sauntering across the Rio Grande with packs of Fentanyl on their backs. It’s a pretty constant refrain.
The complaints have been so loud that Ted Cruz has called for Homeland Security Secretary Mayorkas to be impeached because of the rise of immigrants at the border.
WASHINGTON — As GOP lawmakers continue to antagonize the Biden administration over its immigration policies, U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, warned Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas that his handling of the southern border could be “grounds for impeachment.”
Cruz, along with U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-South Carolina, sent a letter to Mayorkas on Tuesday blasting him for “gross dereliction of duty” and citing record-high numbers of crossings at the southern border.
“These astronomically high numbers are due in no small part to the political decision to rescind a number of President Trump’s policies that were stemming the flow of illegal aliens and illicit drugs across the southern border,” Cruz and Graham’s letter said. “Withdrawing the Remain in Mexico policy, ending Title 42 expulsions, terminating border wall construction contracts, and countless other decisions, coupled with your own lax border policies, act as ‘pull’ factors that have encouraged millions of aliens to undertake the dangerous journey to the U.S.-Mexico border.”
This is an article of faith among the MAGAs. But actual immigrant policy is more complex and arcane than they suggest. It’s really not as simple as keeping everyone on one side of a fence and threatening to shoot them if they approach.
Not hardly.
GOP/MAGA imagine that no one should be let in unless they have the proper paperwork, and they claim that Trump had “solved” the border while Biden has “opened” it. They claim repeatedly that Trump “built a wall” except really he didn’t do all that much.
He didn't build his fence, he just replaced some of the old fence using money he stole from the vets, then it blew over in a stiff breeze and can now be cut through with tools from Walmart.
So let's just skip on from that nonsense, shall we?
Then there’s the myth that migrants are bringing drugs and Fentanyl into the country.
A new NPR/Ipsos poll shows that misleading and false claims about immigration are widespread, and their reach may be growing. Our poll finds that large numbers of Americans hold a range of misconceptions about immigrants, from how likely they are to use public benefits to their role in smuggling illegal drugs into the U.S. NPR's Joel Rose reports.
[...]
RON DESANTIS: You have people coming across illegally from countries all over the world. And so what has that gotten us? We now, in this country, have the leading cause of death for people 18 to 45 as fentanyl overdose.
ROSE: Notice how Governor Ron DeSantis of Florida jumps quickly from the record number of migrant arrests at the southern border to fentanyl overdose deaths. But experts say that's not an accurate picture.
VICTOR M MANJARREZ: My name is Victor M. Manjarrez Jr. I am the director for the Center for Law and Human Behavior at the University of Texas, El Paso.
ROSE: Victor Manjarrez served in the Border Patrol for more than 20 years, retiring as the sector chief in Tucson. Manjarrez says it's true that fentanyl is crossing the border - a lot of fentanyl - but it's not coming over on the backs of migrants, who are often turning themselves in to seek asylum.
MANJARREZ: The probability they're going to carry some kind of illicit narcotic is probably close to zero.
ROSE: Manjarrez says some fentanyl is brought in by cartels who are using migrants as a distraction, but the vast majority is smuggled through official ports of entry, hidden in cars and tractor-trailers.
And the myth that most migrants and criminals and rapists, when that isn’t the case either.
The alleged murder of Kate Steinle in San Francisco by illegal immigrant Juan Francisco Lopez‐Sanchez has reignited the debate over the link between immigration and crime. Such debates often call for change in policy regarding the deportation or apprehension of illegal immigrants. However, if policies should change, it should not be in reaction to a single tragic murder. It should be in response to careful research on whether immigrants actually boost the U.S. crime rates.
With few exceptions, immigrants are less crime prone than natives or have no effect on crime rates.
In point of fact, the border policies of Trump and Biden are hardly different from each other at all, only in the margins, which is quite a disappointment for progressives.
During processing, most people found attempting to cross the border are immediately rejected and expelled from the country. That is done on the basis of whether they violate Title 8 or Title 42 protocols. People expelled for Title 8 are those who are found to be criminals with a documented record, or else are on the no-fly list or terrorist watchlist. Title 42 is used to expel people who present a health risk, particularly under Covid-19 protocols.
On March 21, 2020 the President, in accordance with Title 42 of the United States Code Section 265, determined that by reason of existence of COVID-19 in Mexico and Canada, there is a serious danger of the further introduction of COVID-19 into the United States; that prohibition on the introduction of persons or property, in whole or in part, from Mexico and Canada is required in the interest of public health. Under this order, CBP is prohibiting the entry of certain persons who potentially pose a health risk, either by virtue of being subject to previously announced travel restrictions or because they unlawfully entered the country to bypass health screening measures. To help prevent the introduction of COVID-19 into border facilities and into the United States, persons subject to the order will not be held in congregate areas for processing and instead will immediately be expelled to their country of last transit.
Let’s just recall that in March 2020 the levels of Covid infection were probably lower in Mexico and Canada than they were here in the US, we were frankly more likely to infect them than the other way around.
Also, when Trump was concocting his plan to send “border criminals to Democrat Cities to wreak havoc” — he would be sending them the people that were already being expelled from the country for violating Title 8 and being a criminal.
Miles Taylor, the Department of Homeland Security's chief of staff during the Trump administration, said this week that former President Donald Trump once asked his team to find murderers, rapists, and criminals at the border and to have them sent to Democrat-run cities.
Taylor made this statement during an appearance on CNN this week while weighing in on how Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis' have been sending migrants to places like New York and Martha's Vineyard, respectively.
So in reality, he would have been importing criminals to implement his plan.
These are the stats for expulsions of those criminals during Trump’s final year.
U.S. Border Patrol Monthly Enforcement Encounters 2020: Title 42 Expulsions and Title 8 Apprehensions
U.S. Border Patrol (USBP) |
Enforcement Actions |
MAR |
APR |
MAY |
JUN |
JUL |
AUG |
SEPT |
FY20 TOTAL |
Southwest Border |
Title 42 Expulsions2 |
7,081 |
15,003 |
20,044 |
28,470 |
35,376 |
42,742 |
48,327 |
197,043 |
Title 8 Apprehensions1 |
23,308 |
1,179 |
1,549 |
2,366 |
3,160 |
4,541 |
6,444 |
203,608 |
Total |
30,389 |
16,182 |
21,593 |
30,836 |
38,536 |
47,283 |
54,771 |
400,651 |
Northern Border |
Title 42 Expulsions2 |
13 |
15 |
40 |
64 |
68 |
66 |
62 |
328 |
Title 8 Apprehensions1 |
150 |
9 |
25 |
31 |
66 |
49 |
74 |
1,827 |
Total |
163 |
24 |
65 |
95 |
134 |
115 |
136 |
2,155 |
Land Border Total |
Title 42 Expulsions2 |
7,094 |
15,018 |
20,084 |
28,534 |
35,444 |
42,808 |
48,389 |
197,371 |
Title 8 Apprehensions1 |
23,458 |
1,188 |
1,574 |
2,397 |
3,226 |
4,590 |
6,518 |
205,435 |
USBP - Total Land Border Enforcement Encounters |
30,552 |
16,206 |
21,658 |
30,931 |
38,670 |
47,398 |
54,907 |
402,806 |
As you can see 197,371 people were expelled due to Covid-19 in 2020, while 205,435 were apprehended for being potential criminals. In order to make these determinations — are they a covid risk, or a criminal — the border patrol has to process, background check and test the individuals.
That means they have to let them in as we see in the Fox video. This is step one in what may be a multi-step process. Most of the people they let in are immediately expelled right back out again, others are sent to detention centers before being deported. Those who pass the background check are sometimes released on their own recognizance, or with ankle monitors until their deportation process completes. Letting them in initially doesn’t mean that they’re going to stay. Most of them don’t stay.
Rather than having them enter, be released by border patrol and then disappear into the night never to be seen again, an average of 83% of migrants who are not held in detention later appear for their deportation hearings.
Contrary to claims by the government that most immigrants fail to appear in immigration court, our analysis of data provided by the federal government reveals that 83% of all nondetained immigrants with completed or pending removal cases from Fiscal Years (FY) 2008 through 2018 attended all of their court hearings. Among those who were represented by counsel during the same time period, 96% attended all of their court hearings. Moreover, we reveal that 15% of those who were ordered deported because they didn’t appear in court successfully reopened their cases and had their removal orders rescinded. This crucial finding suggests that many individuals who fail to appear in court wanted to attend their hearings but never received notice or faced hardship in getting to court.
As you can see from this graphic for 2022, under Biden the numbers of apprehensions and expulsions have gone up significantly.
So whereas Trump expelled/apprehended about 402,000 people in 2020, Biden has expelled and arrested 1.9 Million people in 2022.
That is not an open border. Yes, these numbers are high but they are not the people “getting in”, these are the people that the CBP is processing and keeping out. Biden is apprehending and expelling far more migrants than Trump did. But the increase in numbers isn’t really just because there has been an increase in migrants attempting to enter. The increase has at least partially been a byproduct of the Title 42 policy itself.
The United States has long guaranteed the right to seek asylum to individuals who arrive at our southern border and ask for protection. But since March 20, 2020, that fundamental right has been largely suspended. Beginning on that date, both migrants seeking a better life in the United States and those wanting to apply for asylum have been turned away and “expelled” back to Mexico or their home countries. These border expulsions are carried out under a little-known provision of U.S. health law—section 265 of Title 42—which the former Trump administration invoked to achieve its long-desired goal of shutting the border to asylum seekers. Over 1.8 million expulsions under Title 42 have been carried out since the pandemic began. However, nearly half of those expulsions were of the same people being apprehended and expelled back to Mexico multiple times. This is because Title 42 has led to a significant increase in repeat crossings at the border. Half of all single adults from Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador who have been expelled to Mexico under Title 42 have been apprehended crossing the border again. As a result, Title 42 has significantly increased overall border crossings. In fact, 1 in 3 apprehensions since Title 42 expulsions began have been of a person on at least their second attempt to cross the border.
Border apprehensions are indeed up, but only partially because more migrants are attempting to enter, as many as 1/3rd of those being apprehended have been apprehended previously because they were previously expelled under Title 42. It’s like a revolving door out there as people try to come in over and over and are repeatedly rejected — this process could keep the apprehension rating climbing for years, but may not exactly reflect that many more people are trying to enter.
Biden’s policy is not to allow single individual adults or family units entry. The only persons who aren’t automatically rejected are single unaccompanied children. Because what would you expect them to do with a child by themselves, dump them back alone in Tijuana? These kids are taken to shelters and attempts are made to connect them with sponsors or with members of their own families who are already within the U.S. The main difference between Biden and Trump is that Trump was forcibly separating parents from their children at the border — Biden doesn’t do that because it's fucking horrific and permanently traumatizing for the children.
That was a human rights violation.
In FY2021 and FY2022, CBP reports there were approximately 2,108 and 2,782 of these unaccompanied minors each year respectively. These are the only people for whom Biden has “opened” the border. About 5,000 kids. [Other reports I’ve seen argue that the unaccompanied minors have surged to as high as 15,000/month.]
Some on the right still argue that this is still a “separation policy” because parents will travel with children to the border and then self-separate at the last minute so that their children will have a chance to be allowed into the country.
Houston CNN — Her children cry over the phone begging that she find someone, anyone, to take them out of a government-run shelter in New York.
The mother’s throat ties into a knot, as she holds back tears.
She’s nearly 2,000 miles away, living under a tarp with her 8-year-old daughter in a public park in Reynosa, Mexico, a cartel-ridden and kidnapping hotbed.
“Find someone to help us,” her sons, ages 10 and 15, say over the phone.
She keeps listening and doesn’t have the heart to tell them, again, that none of their relatives in America are willing to take them out of the shelter.
“I feel incomplete,” she told CNN. “I want to do something [for them] and I can’t.”
This seems to be happening frequently after a family has already been expelled once. That situation is horrible, what I don’t hear coming from the right — or anyone — is a practical solution to that problem. Do you think the kids are better off living under the tarp with kidnap-happy cartels around?
Another fact I need to make clear is that it is perfectly legal to enter the US at any point and request asylum. This is the actual law under 8 U.S. Code § 1158.
(a) Authority to apply for asylum
It doesn’t matter whether the person comes in through an “approved entry” or not — all that matters is that they are physically present on U.S. soil.
Individuals Claiming Credible Fear
Those who are apprehended between Ports of Entry and claim credible fear are processed for expedited removal by U.S. Border Patrol. Those who arrive at Ports of Entry, are found inadmissible, and claim credible fear are processed for expedited removal by the Office of Field Operations. All claims of credible fear are referred to Asylum Officers of the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS).
Under the Expedited Removal Provisions, an agent or officer takes the applicant's sworn statement, including asking four questions regarding any fear the alien may have of returning to his or her home country and the potential of being harmed. During Expedited Removal proceedings, detainees are questioned regarding any fear they may have of returning to their country of origin, to ensure that each detainee is afforded the ability to articulate claims of fear.
[...]
CBP Agents and Officers have no discretion as to whether or not to refer an alien for a credible fear interview. CBP Agents and Officers do not make any determination on the validity of such claims and refer the person for an interview with a USCIS Asylum Officer.
So as shown — but not understood — in the Fox News video, it is perfectly legal for the Border Patrol to open a locked fence — note: that fence wasn’t the border, they had already crossed the border — and allow migrants to enter in order to be processed for their asylum requests or determine if they should be immediately expelled or arrested under Title 8 and Title 42. If they are accepted into the asylum program, which is a long complex process, they are not “Illegals”. They are perfectly legal at least until the process is done and they are either granted asylum or rejected.
If they are rejected they may have deportation procedures filed against them, which — because due process applies to everyone, not just US citizens — requires that they go through immigration hearings with a judge which takes time to arrange and schedule. Again, once that process is done they may be deported, or not.
Yes, the Biden administration has moved some of these people who are potentially pending deportation or their asylum hearings around the country on buses to other CBP facilities in order to relieve the pressure on border communities. These movements are planned ahead of time, and the receiving facilities are aware that migrants are coming.
In contrast, the Venezuelan migrants that Ron DeSantis shipped to Martha’s Vineyard on a wing and prayer were all asylum seekers, they are all here legally.
Most migrants do not claim asylum and are either expelled or scheduled for deportation.
CBP Southwest Border and Claims of Credible Fear Total Apprehensions/Inadmissibles (FY2017 - FY2019)
|
FY17 |
FY18 |
FY19 |
Total Apprehensions & Inadmissibles |
415,517 |
521,090 |
977,509 |
Total Claims of Credible Fear Apprehensions & Inadmissibles |
55,584 |
92,959 |
146,660 |
CF Apprehensions/Inadmissibles % of Total |
13% |
18% |
15% |
Compared to the total number of people apprehended at the border — and presumably expelled — only a small fraction are assigned for asylum processing.
As the letter from Cruz and Graham states, Trump had a policy of “Remain in Mexico” for asylum seekers, but — after going through the Supreme Court — Biden was able to end that policy, however, he has not been able to end the Title 42 Covid Protocols due to a hard-headed right-wing Judge even though most of the danger from Covid has largely subsided.
Whether these policy changes have acted as a “pull” to migrants is debatable since the most impactful of those policies — Title 42 — remains in place, and the wall is still there even if part of it has fallen down and smugglers are drilling holes in the rest of it which have to be repeatedly repaired.
Under Biden, the number of asylum requests has actually gone down significantly, however, the rate of asylum approvals has gone up.
Under the new Biden administration asylum seekers are seeing greater success rates in securing asylum. While asylum denial rates had grown ever higher during the Trump years to a peak of 71 percent in FY 2020, they fell to 63 percent in FY 2021. Expressed another way, success rates grew from 29 percent to 37 percent under President Biden.
[...]
Even with the greater odds of success, the number of asylum seekers who were granted asylum during FY 2021 was only 8,349 with an additional 402 granted another type of relief in place of asylum. In sheer numbers, this was only about half the number of asylum seekers who had been granted relief during FY 2020. See Figure 1.
So again, this is not a sign of an “open border” or an open border policy. Far from it. Apprehensions have gone up, expulsions have gone up, and asylum requests have gone down.
Other examples include the expulsion of tens of thousands of Haitian migrants even though their nation is still suffering from the damage of a devastating earthquake.
The Biden administration hit a sad and stunning milestone today. Aboard its 198th flight deporting or expelling people to Haiti this morning was the 20,000th migrant sent back to the Caribbean nation since Inauguration Day 2021.
According to Witness at the Border, a group that tracks U.S. government expulsion and deportation flights, 161 of those 198 planes, carrying 17,900 people, have flown in just the 5 months since September 19. That was when over 10,000 mostly Haitian migrants appeared on the banks of the Rio Grande in Del Rio, Texas, asking for asylum or other forms of protection.
We all recall the troubling images of Border Patrol agents, mounted on horseback, charging at the Haitian migrants wading across the river. Though President Joe Biden called it “horrible” and Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said that an investigation would “be completed in days—not weeks,” we have heard no results on accountability.
Tell me, does that event sound like the border is open? Does that seem like the kind of thing that would “pull” more migrants to attempt to cross the border? I highly doubt that it would.
Now, there is another category of migrants that we don't have real stats for because they never encounter border patrol, and that is those who “Got away.” The ones who manage to enter and completely avoid detection by border patrol. This is the issue that really has the GOP/MAGA up in arms.
Regardless of where you sit on the political and ideological spectrum, there is no denying the catastrophic crisis at our southern border. Whether you see it as a humanitarian, national security, or constitutional crisis, or all three rolled into one, it’s a colossal failure by any definition.
The Biden administration’s open-border policies have drawn five million illegal aliens from 160 different countries to our borders in just 18 months. The predictable result is a chaotic and deadly southern border where a complex set of threats are pouring into to the U.S. The situation has become so dangerous and untenable that a judge in Kinney County, Texas, formally declared the county was being invaded.
The crux of the crisis is not overly complicated. To deal with the crushing flow of illegal aliens, 80% to 90% of Border Patrol personnel are often pulled off the front lines to care for, process, and release those who have crossed illegally.
Biden’s Border Patrol has essentially been compelled to abandon much of its core mission to protect the American people. This has left our borders wide-open and facilitated the cartels broadening their operational control over our southern border, making it easier for them to smuggle drugs into the U.S. and expand their human trafficking operation.
Exactly how many people were talking about here is an open question. The NY Post said that in FY2022 that it was 500k people. GOP.com says that it was 800k (by combining almost two years' worth of data). Homeland Security internally uses both what they’ve observed visual and mathematical models to estimate how many people they’ve successfully apprehended crossing the border and how many “Got Away.” From their numbers we have this:
So from this, we can see that a pretty good apprehension rate would be about 70-75%. Also, note that they observed reaching rates of nearly 80% twice during the Obama years.
We know that in his first year Biden apprehended 1.9 Million migrants and taking the single-year matching figure for “got aways” from the NY Post of 500k, that brings us to a total rate of 75%
That means that Biden’s rate of apprehension is essentially the same as Trump’s rate of apprehension. He has not “ordered the CBP to stand down.” They are not just sitting on their hands and letting migrants waltz into the country without processing and vetting. They’re doing their jobs as well now as they were before — probably better considering they were never budgeted to handle this volume of migrants.
Now, admittedly the total number of “Got Aways” is likely greater because the number of migrants, and returns migrants, is now significantly higher than it was then — but how exactly is that Biden’s fault? It would be nice to get the apprehension rate up, but that would require passing an upgraded funding bill and new immigration plan through congress — several items in that vein were included in Build Back Better — but just guess who refuses to pass any new immigration bills?
Ultimately, the real solution to this migration issue is to solve the original issues of corruption and violence in their home countries — but seeing as our past Central-American excursions, and the still ample drug trade are chief sources for that corruption and violence — it’s a difficult problem for us to solve. Vice President Harris has been assigned to work on that, but it's a very challenging task.
Vice President Kamala Harris released a sweeping strategy on Thursday to address the root causes of migration amid the recent surge in illegal U.S.-Mexico border crossings.
The strategy states that the pandemic and “extreme weather conditions” have exacerbated the root causes of migration, which includes corruption, violence, trafficking and poverty.
[...]
“In Central America, the root causes of migration run deep — and migration from the region has a direct impact on the United States,” Harris wrote in a cover letter discussing the plan. “For that reason, our nation must consistently engage with the region to address the hardships that cause people to leave Central America and come to our border.”
This tactic of addressing the migration problem at its source is one that was abandoned by the Trump administration. Under Trump, many of our Central-American efforts were scrapped.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration on Monday cut hundreds of millions of dollars in aid to El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras, after Trump blasted the three countries because thousands of their citizens had sought asylum at the U.S. border with Mexico.
The plan will likely encounter stiff opposition in Congress.
Lawmakers, including some of Trump’s fellow Republicans as well as Democrats, have chafed against the president’s repeated decisions to disregard spending bills passed by Congress, some of which he has signed into law himself.
Lawmakers who opposed the plan said it was cruel to cut off aid to countries grappling with hunger and crime and that the move would be counterproductive because it would more likely increase the number of migrants than decrease it.
Biden has never said or even signaled that the “Border is Open.” He only criticized the previous administration's border policy as being inhumane, because it was.
The people who are constantly saying the “Border is Open” and potentially attracting migrants to try and cross that border — are Republicans. They’re obsessed with an issue that simply isn’t the problem they claim that it is.
The border isn’t open — Republican mouths are.