Sen. Cotton on border crisis: ‘No precedent’ on the amount of illegal immigrants crossing everyday
Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., on bipartisan senators seeking to protect Title 42 and what its repeal could mean for a new influx of migrants at the southern border.
America's border security is about to go from terrible to the worst it has ever been.
The number of illegal aliens who crossed into America in 2021 was an all-time record at over 2 million. President Joe Biden's reckless immigration policies in his first year have led to the most lawless southern border in decades. And while Border Patrol's daily illegal alien apprehensions are already very high, the Biden regime is about to blow the hinges off the doors for a wide-open border with catastrophic consequences for American sovereignty and rule of law.
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Border Patrol agents work a checkpoint at an entry near the Del Rio International Bridge. (Brandon Bell/Getty Images) (Brandon Bell/Getty Images)
With the White House's recently announced decision to end Title 42 Authority -- a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention regulation that allowed a portion of illegal migrants to be expelled from U.S. soil during the COVID pandemic -- the ongoing flood of illegal migrants is about to turn into a tsunami. This will also cause a surge in the criminal trafficking of opioids across the southern border, at a time when the U.S. is already suffering over 100,000 overdose deaths a year.
In the first six months of fiscal year 2022, there have already been one million migrant "encounters" (the preferred DHS euphemism for apprehended illegals) at the southern border. The current rate of Border Patrol apprehensions -- around 8,000 a day -- is already well-beyond their maximum capacity of 5,000.
In just more than a month's time, DHS officials are estimating there could be up to 18,000 illegal migrants apprehended at the southern border every day. Based on migrant flows already gathered or underway, there could be close to a million illegal migrant border crossings within six weeks of Title 42 ending.
If the surge of illegal migration is even close to this level, it will completely overwhelm the system. Border Patrol will be stretched beyond the breaking point. Every aspect of immigration enforcement at America's border with Mexico will be in a frenzied triage mode.
And it appears that is exactly the Biden plan: let migrants flood the system. Biden's administration simply does not want to stop the flow of illegal migrants -- in fact, the Left wing of the Democrat Party is in staunchly in favor of illegal migrants entering the country at will. Every immigration policy decision they make points in this direction.
Biden came into office calling for a 100-day moratorium on all deportations. Over the past year, interior enforcement of immigration laws has been almost entirely turned off, part of the systematic abuse of executive branch "prosecutorial discretion." President Biden chose to end the "Remain in Mexico" policy of his predecessor, President Trump, which had proven effective in re-establishing control of the border from illegal migrants' rampant abuse of American asylum laws.
The Democrat base simply wants the status quo to continue, in the hopes that soon a massive amnesty will create millions of new Democrat voters. But the American people are still -- by strong majority -- opposed to illegal immigration, which means the Biden administration will be focused on optics control at the southern border. They won't stop the illegal migrant flow, they will try to hide it, with plenty of help from their allies in the media.
The Biden White House isn't worried the constant mockery that they make of our immigration laws. They choose that. What concerns them is the possibility of another 15,000-person convoy -- perhaps many of them at once -- camping out at our southern border and demanding entry into the U.S.
While DHS monthly apprehension numbers look bad, massive crowds of illegals on tv -- some literally wearing "Biden" t-shirts as they attempt an end-run on our immigration laws -- leaves a truly lasting impression on voters.
YUMA, ARIZONA - DECEMBER 07: Immigrant men from many countries are taken into custody by U.S. Border Patrol agents at the U.S.-Mexico border on December 07, 2021 in Yuma, Arizona. Most had come with their families through a nearby gap in the border wall in previous days to seek political asylum in the United States. Women and children were transported to processing facilities first. Border Patrol detention facilities in Yuma were overwhelmed with thousands of new arrivals, with many families trying to reach U.S. soil before the court-ordered re-implementation of the Trump-era Remain in Mexico policy. The policy requires asylum seekers to stay in Mexico for the duration of their U.S. immigration court process. (Photo by John Moore/Getty Images) (John Moore/Getty Images)
Democrats are heading into what will likely be a disastrous midterm election, and illegal immigration is consistently a top-level concern in national polling. So the Biden-Democrat plan is going to be making the entry of illegals into the U.S. as seamless (and invisible) as possible.
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Once Title 42 is gone and the expected avalanche of illegal migrants begins next month, they will deploy additional DHS resources and assorted bureaucrats not to protect American sovereignty at the border, but to aid in its systematic violation.
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An overwhelmed Border Patrol will be forced to use "alternative to detention" processes to bring in -- and then set free -- anyone who enters illegally and does not pose an immediate security risk. Most illegals will be told, on a version of the honor system, to show up once on U.S. soil and enter themselves the immigration system. It's a de facto open border, and an absurd proposition.
Biden and the Democrats may not believe in our own national borders, but most Americans still do. The lawlessness is only going to get worse unless the Democrats are made to fear an electoral annihilation this November. That reckoning must emerge, or our southern border will disappear.