Brnovich: People are dying as a result of failed border security
Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich discusses the rise overdose deaths in his state.
Waves of migrant caravans keep surging north from deep in Mexico. The latest to head for America: a group of some 3,000, mostly Haitians. A week ago, they started making the 1,350-mile trek north from Tapachula, on the border with Guatemala. They left with permission from the Mexican government – none of the migrant caravans moves without approval from Mexico City.
Speaking on Fox News, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton said the Biden administration was "inviting" would-be migrants, and further charged that the administration is not permitting the Border Patrol "to do their jobs … or protect the border. They’re not allowed to have the resources that they need."
Paxton also warned that the Mexican drug "cartels are gaining strength" and that, according to the Border Patrol, they earn an average of $8,000 for every person they smuggle across the border.
WOKE CULTURE HAS HIT OUR POLICE HARD AND NOW IT THREATENS OUR SAFETY
While consistently dodging questions on the ongoing border crisis, the Biden administration claims the crisis isn’t one, that "root causes" must be addressed – as if they’re prepared to root out deep-seated corruption from Mexico to the Northern Triangle nations of El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras. They add that they want an immigration system that’s "fair, orderly, and humane" – which is odd given they’ve made the system more unfair, disorderly, and dangerous.
That the situation on the border has become a crisis is no surprise. As soon as he took office, President Joe Biden ordered an end to most of President Donald Trump’s border initiatives.
The border wall? Stopped in its tracks, with huge gaps left in the wall next to piles of rusting steel beams and fencing.
Immediate deportations? Paused. In its place, midnight charter jet flights out of military bases deep into the U.S. interior.
The Remain in Mexico program? Ended, in the face of court orders to keep it operational – but without pressure from Biden, the Mexican government has little incentive to cooperate.
The ban on travel from nations rife with terrorism? Lifted.
How bad is it?
Now, the Border Patrol is so busy processing minors and family units into the country that the number of "got-aways" – unauthorized migrants spotted but not apprehended – ballooned.
The numbers don’t lie. Under Biden’s watch, apprehensions of illegal migrants along America’s southwest border soared to their highest ever, topping 1,659,206 for fiscal year 2021, breaking the previous record set in 2000, during the Clinton administration.
Biden exempted minors from the COVID-19 health expulsion order, previously applied to everyone due to the pandemic health emergency. This drew more than 144,000 foreign national minors – including people pretending to be under 18 – to illegally enter the country the past 12 months.
Now, the Border Patrol is so busy processing minors and family units into the country that the number of "got-aways" – unauthorized migrants spotted but not apprehended – ballooned to more than 400,000 during this fiscal year. National Border Patrol Council spokesman Chris Cabrera says even that estimate is an undercount, and that the real number of got-aways could be two or three times that amount.
When the Biden administration ended the Remain in Mexico policy, also known as the Migrant Protection Protocols, it facilitated mass abuse of the U.S. asylum system. People making a claim of asylum are supposed to make their claims in the first nation they come to as they flee oppression or genocide. Instead of making those claiming asylum wait in Mexico, the Biden administration is releasing them on their own recognizance into the U.S. and often granting them parole – permission to work and set down roots in America – prior to any legal hearing.
And even more alarmingly, this year, U.S. Customs and Border Protection seized enough fentanyl to kill two billion plus people, enough to kill the entire U.S. population seven times over. And all while drug overdose deaths hit a new high of 100,306 in the 12 months ending in April 2021, with most of those deaths, 75,673, being from opioids, mostly fentanyl.
The Mexican drug cartels get their fentanyl, or the ingredients to make it, from the People’s Republic of China. Put into perspective, three times more Americans die from drug overdoses than from traffic accidents and more than double that of gun deaths, 60% of which are suicides.
Sadly, the Biden border crisis was both preventable and predictable. A year ago, the Texas Public Policy Foundation assembled two dozen experts to participate in a border crisis simulation. Its key findings:
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*Expectations of a Biden administration soft on illegal immigration will prime "a new wave of migrants to risk traveling to the border"
*"The Biden administration will be fatally slow to respond to the scale of the crisis as it unfolds"
*"It is an almost absolute certainty that drug overdose deaths in America will soar in 2021 and later years"
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*"The end of travel restrictions on certain nations will increase the flow of individuals connected with terror groups into the U.S."
Given the Biden administration’s clear willingness to ignore both the law and court rulings, the border crisis will likely continue until Democrats realize the electoral pain may outweigh the expected gain.