Biden’s Open Borders Betrayal

COMMENTARY Immigration

Biden’s Open Borders Betrayal

Oct 10, 2022 11 min read
COMMENTARY BY
Tom Homan

Visiting Fellow, Border Security and Immigration Center

Tom Homan, former Acting Director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, is a Visiting Fellow at The Heritage Foundation.
Police officers and soldiers take security measures after a 5-year-old girl died in the Rio Grande while trying to cross the border in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico on August 22, 2022. Christian Torres / Anadolu Agency / Getty Images

Key Takeaways

The situation is so dire that the Biden administration is taking a page out of President Trump’s book and building sections of the border wall in Arizona.

At the same time the Biden administration has cut down on prosecuting illegal immigrants by nearly 80 percent. This all but invites more to come.

American security and sovereignty are being disastrously mishandled. Americans have been betrayed. And November elections can’t come soon enough.

As Biden’s border crisis continues, the body bags keep piling up and nothing is being done. Last month, in one of the worst human smuggling tragedies in recent memory, 53 migrants were found dead in the back of an 18-wheeler, baked alive due to extreme heat. This tragedy is just the tip of the iceberg. Biden’s open borders agenda has now all but become synonymous with death—and America last.

The situation is so dire that the Biden administration is taking a page out of President Trump’s book and building sections of the border wall in Arizona, saying it will “save lives.” Two years ago, these same leaders called Trump’s wall “racist.”

More importantly, their move is mere window dressing. It comes too little, too late.

The liberal media barely reports it, but migrants hoist their bags over their heads and wade waist-deep across the Rio Grande River by the thousands every day—because Biden has invited them to. Many have died.

>>> Fentanyl’s Wake

At the same time lethal drugs are pouring across our border and spreading throughout the United States, killing Americans.

Since October, 56 people on the terror watchlist have been caught trying to cross the border between ports of entry—not to mention those who might have already slipped through.

I have one word: unprecedented.

The numbers confirm this. In June alone, more than 207,000 illegal immigrants were caught crossing the southern border, marking a 310 percent increase from average June apprehensions under Trump. Now, roughly 4 million illegal immigrants have crossed the border in just 18 months since Biden has been in office. Unprecedented. And since he came into office over 13,000 pounds of fentanyl have been seized at the southern border—enough to kill millions of Americans many times over. Unprecedented. The fallout is seeping deep into our country.

In 2021, the U.S. reached an all-time high in drug overdose deaths. Yet recently Biden’s Drug Policy Director Kemp Chester said the Biden administration is approaching the drug and opioid crisis devastating our nation’s communities with “action that is bold, far-reaching, and innovative”—though he did admit secure borders would curtail fentanyl pouring in.

Biden’s open borders are by design. He came into office, signed executive orders and dismantled the immigration system the Trump administration built. The magnitude of this crisis simply cannot be overstated. The floodgates are wide open, and migrants surging to our border know that more likely than not, if they cross over they have a real shot at staying in the United States.

At the same time the Biden administration has cut down on prosecuting illegal immigrants by nearly 80 percent. This all but invites more to come. Under Biden’s watch, over 800,000 illegal immigrants have now come into the United States unapprehended—the “got-aways.” We simply don’t know what criminal types were among them—we do know that just since October, there were 56 people on the terror watchlist among the ones we did apprehend. Biden’s callous disregard for public safety is beyond worrisome.

I was once a Border Patrol agent. We need to listen to the agents, not demonize them like Biden and radical progressives like AOC have done. A Texas DPS agent recently said that “nothing has been done. It’s been the complete opposite—it’s actually gotten much worse.”

In April, a Border Patrol agent said his worst fear is “the people coming in … We get prisoners, folks that just got out of prison, sex offenders, murderers, and no idea how many bad folks are coming in.”

>>> Big City Mayors Welcome Illegal Immigrants, Except When They Don’t

“Every day,” he said, “it’s getting worse.” 

In July, Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas said: “I think that we are doing a good job.” In May, he said: “We do not believe the policies of this administration have caused [the border crisis].” Last October, Biden acted like visiting the border was a nuisance to his schedule, saying he hasn’t “had a whole hell of a lot of time” to go.

Clearly, American security and sovereignty are being disastrously mishandled. Americans have been betrayed. And November elections can’t come soon enough.

We will secure our borders, enforce our laws, support our Border Patrol agents, hold Biden and complicit Democrats accountable, and expel with the full force of our dedicated law enforcement agencies those already unlawfully in our great country. It will save lives and protect America.

This piece originally appeared in The Hill on 08/08/2022