CrimsonPhantom
CUSA Curator
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RE: Biden's* Border Bungling (Hospitals starting to fill up with Covid Illegals)
Quote:The number of illegal immigrants trying to jump the border is on pace for the highest rate in two decades, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said Tuesday, delivering a sobering account just a day before he is to face Congress.
He placed blame for the situation on Mexico’s lessening cooperation, on the conditions in other countries, on the coronavirus and on the Trump administration — but did not mention President Biden’s changes, which many migrants themselves are citing as their reason for coming now.
In particular, Mr. Mayorkas said the Trump team left “no plans” for protecting Border Patrol agents and others on the front lines from the coronavirus.
He said the country has experienced surges before, pointing to 2019 and 2014 — that latter year when he himself was deputy secretary. But he also acknowledged this time is looking even worse.
“We are on pace to encounter more individuals on the southwest border than we have in the last 20 years,” he said.
He said a majority of those are being expelled under a Trump-era coronavirus health emergency policy that the administration has kept in place.
But the Biden administration will not expel unaccompanied juveniles, and Mexico is refusing to allow expulsion back across the boundary of some other families. Reports at the border say those numbers range up to 1,000 a day. The families are being processed and released into communities.
He acknowledged the government is not doing COVID-19 testing, but said it is offering to cover costs if local officials and service providers will test.
Yet some communities lack the capacity to test, much less to quarantine those that do test positive. COVID positive rates run as high as 25% among some groups of migrants.
Local officials who can’t quarantine say those migrants are getting on buses along with the general public and disappearing into the country’s interior.
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Quote:“Saying it’s so, don’t make it so.”
– A friend’s 12-year-old son
The opposite is also true: Saying it ain’t so, doesn’t mean it ain’t.
All of which is more coherent than the Biden administration’s own statements about the border in the last month. The “Biden effect” is in full swing, with literally thousands of illegal aliens entering the country daily — with no COVID-19 checks, no social distancing in facilities and not enough facilities to handle the children in particular. But many of the newcomers were sure to wear their Biden t-shirts to the border.
And yet, even as we are overwhelmed at the border, the Biden administration is doing everything it can to not call the crisis at the border a, well … crisis. White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki actually said recently that there are not enough facilities to handle the inflow of illegals, but it’s not a crisis.
Isn’t that a primary definition of a crisis?
So, what would qualify as a crisis? The Biden administration is being very careful not to say how they would even define when we’ve hit the point of crisis.
Jeh Johnson, the Homeland Security secretary under President Obama, notably said that anything over 1,000 illegals crossing the border per day is a crisis. This administration has never been below that number. In fact, they’ve been over 4,000 per day for some time now. And those are only the ones they are counting.
No ostrich ever stuck its head any farther into the ground than this administration. The one clear priority of the Biden administration as it relates to the border is to never, under even the worst of circumstances, admit that the border is in crisis.
Of course, the reason for this absurdity is that it is President Biden himself — personally — who has caused the crisis with both his rhetoric and his policies.
Even Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador has noted these effects, while commenting that it is unsustainable. Others in Mexico have noted the immediate change in the drug cartels’ behavior when Mr. Biden took office, as they take full advantage of the situation at our border.
Now the administration is scrambling to use ICE transportation resources not to return illegals to their home countries, but to transport them farther into our own country (again, generally without regard to their COVID-19 status). So, while this administration puts restrictions on the domestic travel of Americans within the U.S., it invites in hundreds of thousands of illegals traveling in petri-dish-like conditions and ship them around the United States.
This is an “America Last” policy if there ever was one.
At the same time that Mr. Biden denies the crisis on our border, he is also advancing amnesty legislation and supporting H.R. 1, which, among other things, will lead to many of the illegals now crossing our border being registered to vote. Deliberately or not, these elements all send the same clear message: “Come to the U.S. immediately and illegally, and we will keep you.”
And so they do, in record numbers — beyond our capacity to handle them.
In the past, this had a name. It was called a crisis.
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Quote:DARE has been on top of all matters relating to immigration since its founding in 1999.
With Joe Biden at the helm, VDARE writers have been on top of the crisis unfolding at the Southern border.
James Fulford of VDARE revealed some of the latest border crossing numbers coming from the Border Patrol website, and they are quite shocking:
“The Border Patrol reports 100,441 apprehensions in February—nearly three times the number of last February (36,514).”
Over the last year immigration has been on the rise, and Fulford brings some broader context to it:
“This was the ninth straight month of increase from April 2020, when 17,106 were apprehended.”
The numbers that the U.S. Border Patrol (USBP) and Office of Field Operations (OFO) used consist of the following:
Accompanied Minors
Family Unit Aliens (FMUA)
Single Adults
Unaccompanied Alien Children (UAC) / Single Minors
Since October, migration numbers have been consistently soaring. The trend for October (71,946), November (72,111), December (74,018), January (78,442), and February (100,441) is absolutely clear.
At the pace the U.S. is going, Fiscal Year 2021 border apprehensions could conceivably surpass 2020’s number in a month or two. For example, as of now, there have have been roughly 397,000 apprehensions in Fiscal Year 2021, while there were slightly over 458,000 apprehensions in the entire year of 2020.
The Biden administration has been derelict in its immigration duties which was to be expected. The radicalism that has engulfed Democrats and their surrogates is propelling them to embark on nation-destroying ventures such as pushing for open borders.
Ultimately, Democrats must be put in their place. And the best way to start is for America First Republicans to retake the U.S. House. Avoiding goofy issues such as tax cuts and having laser-like focus on immigration will propel nationalists to victory in 2022.
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Quote:White House press secretary Jen Psaki was squarely confronted Monday over the Biden administration's handling of the migrant crisis unfolding at the southern United States border.
What is going on?
Despite virtue-signaling from Democrats, unaccompanied migrant children are facing the same tragic living conditions under President Joe Biden's leadership that Democrats criticized during the Trump presidency.
The situation is so dire, in fact, that children are being forced to sleep on the floor and some can only take one shower per week. One facility in Donna, Texas, even reached more than 700% capacity. The Biden administration is now planning to house migrant teenagers in massive facilities like the Dallas Convention Center.
All the while, Psaki and other administration officials have flatly refused to call the situation a "crisis."
What happened Monday?
PBS' Yamiche Alcindor confronted Psaki over the administration's handling of the crisis, demanding that Psaki answer for the inhumane living conditions being forced on migrant children.
"There were lawyers who interviewed some children that were in facilities. The children described sleeping on the floor, being hungry, not seeing the sun for days. How is that acceptable for the Biden administration to keep children in those sorts of conditions given the fact that you said you were an administration that was going to be more humane than the previous one?" Alcindor asked.
In response, Psaki called the situation "heartbreaking" — then blamed former President Donald Trump.
"We are trying to work through what was a dismantled and unprepared system because of the role of the last administration," Psaki said.
But Alcindor pushed back, noting that migrant children are "hungry, sleeping on the floor, [and] not being allowed outside for days at a time."
"Why is that something that's not being outlawed right now? How is the administration not stopping that today?" Alcindor asked.
Psaki responded by admitting the living conditions are not "acceptable," but said the real "challenge" is that "there are not that many options."
"The options here are: Send the kids back on the journey, send them to unvetted homes, or work to expedite moving them into shelters where they can get health treatment by medical doctors, educational resources, legal counseling, mental health counseling. That's exactly what we're focused on doing," Psaki said.
"We have a lot of critics, but many of them are not putting forward a lot of solutions," Psaki complained.
Anything else?
Biden campaigned on reversing his predecessor's deterrent immigration policies. Critics say the reversal of policy is contributing to the growing migrant crisis.
"You just can't say, 'Yeah, yeah, let everybody in' — because then we're affected down there at the border," Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-Texas) said recently. "The bad guys know how to market this."
In fact, migrant caravans that traveled north over the winter voiced expectation that Biden would honor his commitment to welcome migrants.
"We will advocate that the Biden government honors its commitments," Pueblo Sin Fronteras, a group representing migrants, said in January.
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Quote:n an appearance on Good Morning America, Tuesday, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas appeared to warn individuals considering hopping the United States-Mexico border to hold off, and he suggested that the Biden administration is working on a plan to orderly process more illegal immigrants and asylum seekers.
“Do not come now,” Mayorkas said, matter-of-factly, when asked what his message to those planning to cross the border illegally might be.
“Give us the time to rebuild the system that was entirely dismantled in the prior administration,” he added.
As the Daily Wire reported earlier Tuesday, Mayorkas also admitted that the United States is on pace for the highest number of illegal border crossings in 20 years, though he did admit that the United States Customs and Border Protection is arresting adults and expelling them back into Mexico, accepting only unaccompanied minors and families with “vulnerable” children.
“We are on pace to encounter more individuals on the southwest border than we have in the last 20 years. We are expelling most single adults and families. We are not expelling unaccompanied children,” he said.
Indeed, the Biden administration is seeking comprehensive immigration reform in Congress, but Mayorkas appears to be referring to a separate plan, announced quietly last month, which would “slowly allow” as many as 25,000 asylum seekers into the United States from camps in Mexico, per the Associated Press.
The problem appears to be that, while President Joe Biden rescinded the Trump administration’s “remain in Mexico” policy, which forced asylum seekers to remain in camps south of the United States border until they could be processed by immigration courts — a stark change from the Obama administration’s so-called “catch and release” policy that allowed asylum seekers to remain in the U.S. — the Biden policy applies only to new asylum seekers, not those who traveled to the border under then-President Donald Trump.
“The Biden administration on Friday announced plans for tens of thousands of people who are seeking asylum and have been forced to wait in Mexico under a Trump-era policy to be allowed into the U.S. while their cases wind through immigration courts,” the AP reported. “The first wave of an estimated 25,000 asylum-seekers with active cases in the “Remain in Mexico” program will be allowed into the United States on Feb. 19, authorities said. They plan to start slowly, with two border crossings each processing up to 300 people a day and a third crossing taking fewer numbers.”
Mayorkas made a similar statement at the time, telling reporters that “the U.S. government is committed to rebuilding a safe, orderly, and humane immigration system. This latest action is another step in our commitment to reform immigration policies that do not align with our nation’s values.”
He did add that the change “should not be interpreted as an opening for people to migrate irregularly to the United States” but it seems to have had the opposite effect. The Washington Post reports that Customs and Border Protection are handling a record number of arrests and the situation shows no sign of decline. Adults who are arrested crossing the border illegally are being “expelled” back into Mexico under a lingering Trump administration anti-pandemic policy.
The Biden administration echoed that sentiment through press secretary Jen Psaki.
“We don’t want people to put themselves in danger at a time where it is not the right time to come, because we have not had time to put in place a humane and moral system and process,” she said.
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Quote:The Biden administration on Tuesday admitted that the southwest border is on pace to encounter more illegal immigrants than it has in the past two decades, but still refuses to call the situation a "crisis." At least one Democratic senator disagrees.
Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) thinks the Biden administration is sending the wrong message as Customs and Border Protection reports encountering more than 100,000 migrants at the U.S. border in February.
"Whatever message was sent — it was sure interpreted the wrong way," Manchin told CNN in an interview Monday night. "It's a crisis, oh, it's a crisis."
From day one, President Joe Biden sought to strike a completely different tone on immigration policy from the previous administration. He reversed several of President Donald Trump's border policies, including ending Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP) requiring asylum-seekers to wait in Mexico for processing and limiting Immigration and Customs Enforcement's enforcement actions against most illegal immigrants. The president also vowed to sign legislation granting amnesty and U.S. citizenship to 11 million illegal immigrants.
In the view of migrants hoping to come to the United States, these actions established Biden as, in the words of Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, "the migrant president." Their faith in this president was signified by those appearing at the border wearing Biden T-shirts saying, "Please let us in," clinging to the promises he made by word and deed, promises the Mexican government says "incentivize migration."
As a result, according to a statement from DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, the U.S. government is "on pace to encounter more individuals on the southwest border than we have in the last 20 years." While the administration claims single adults and families traveling together are being turned away at the U.S. border because of the COVID-19 pandemic, Biden has instructed border authorities to take custody of unaccompanied children and seek to reunite them with family or sponsors already in the U.S.
Reports say U.S. Customs and Border Patrol agents have custody of 4,200 children in detention centers. The facilities housing these children are overwhelmed, filled beyond their COVID-19 safe capacity, and lacking essential resources like light, bedding, and enough food.
The kids held there are also being detained longer than the legally permissible 72-hour period before they should be turned over to the Department of Health and Human Services Office of Refugee Resettlement. DHS facilities are at max-capacity, requiring CBP to keep custody of the children longer. There are also plans to house 3,000 male migrant teenagers at a convention center in downtown Dallas for up to 90 days to relieve the stress on other overcrowded facilities.
Last week, the Biden administration was forced to deploy FEMA to assist with the care for these children.
Compounding the problems at the border is a rise of violent crime as drug cartels, human traffickers, and smugglers take advantage of the migrants. Local officials from the border report violent incursions into their communities, including dangerous high-speed chases with police. Criminals apprehended by authorities include illegal immigrants previously deported for sexual assault, murder, and drug trafficking.
Reuters reported last week that criminal organizations are adopting "unprecedented" levels of sophistication to conduct their smuggling operations, including "briefing clients on the latest immigration rules, using technology to outfox authorities, and disguising smuggling operations as travel agencies."
Republicans accuse Biden of inviting this crisis. "This is all a direct result of wide-open borders policy by the Biden administration, failure to finish the fence, but most importantly, they're basically turning DHS into a welcome mat and they're just encouraging more dangerous journeys for kids," Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas) said Monday.
Mayorkas on Tuesday defended the president's policies, describing the current border surge as "difficult" but insisting it is "not new" and refraining from calling it a crisis.
"The situation at the southwest border is difficult," Mayorkas said. "We are working around the clock to manage it and we will continue to do so. That is our job. We are making progress and we are executing on our plan. It will take time and we will not waver in our commitment to succeed."
"We will also not waver in our values and our principles as a Nation," he said. "Our goal is a safe, legal, and orderly immigration system that is based on our bedrock priorities: to keep our borders secure, address the plight of children as the law requires, and enable families to be together."
He continued:
We are on pace to encounter more individuals on the southwest border than we have in the last 20 years. We are expelling most single adults and families. We are not expelling unaccompanied children. We are securing our border, executing the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC) public health authority to safeguard the American public and the migrants themselves, and protecting the children. We have more work to do.
This is not new. We have experienced migration surges before – in 2019, 2014, and before then as well. Since April 2020, the number of encounters at the southwest border has been steadily increasing. Border Patrol Agents are working around the clock to process the flow at the border and I have great respect for their tireless efforts. To understand the situation, it is important to identify who is arriving at our southwest border and how we are following the law to manage different types of border encounters.
Mayorkas said poverty, high levels of violence, and corruption in Mexico and the Northern Triangle countries were factors pushing migrants to seek refuge in the U.S. He also noted, "two damaging hurricanes that hit Honduras and swept through the region made the living conditions there even worse, causing more children and families to flee."
He savaged the Trump administration in his statement, accusing Trump of dismantling the asylum system.
The prior administration completely dismantled the asylum system. The system was gutted, facilities were closed, and they cruelly expelled young children into the hands of traffickers. We have had to rebuild the entire system, including the policies and procedures required to administer the asylum laws that Congress passed long ago.
The prior administration tore down the lawful pathways that had been developed for children to come to the United States in a safe, efficient, and orderly way. It tore down, for example, the Central American Minors program that avoided the need for children to take the dangerous journey to our southwest border.
The previous administration also cut foreign aid funding to the Northern Triangle. No longer did we resource efforts in El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras to tackle the root causes of people fleeing their homes.
And, there were no plans to protect our front-line personnel against the COVID-19 pandemic. There was no appropriate planning for the pandemic at all.
Going forward, the secretary said the Biden administration would work to set up new facilities to house migrants, increase COVID-19 testing, coordinate refugee resettlement with Mexico and Central American countries, and help unaccompanied children apply for asylum in the U.S. on the internet so they don't have to make the dangerous journey north on their own.
"The situation we are currently facing at the southwest border is a difficult one," Mayorkas concluded. "We are tackling it. We are keeping our borders secure, enforcing our laws, and staying true to our values and principles. We can do so because of the incredible talent and unwavering dedication of our workforce."
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