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IMMIGRATION

Biden’s first 100 days: Joe’s immigration reform overtaken by border crisis Anna Giaritelli

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/bidens-first-100-days-joes-immigration-reform-overtaken-by-border-crisis/ar-AAKcKC3?li=BBnb7Kz

President Joe Biden took office in January promising immigration reform, but his agenda was overtaken by a surge of primarily Central American migrants arriving at the southern border.

The White House came out of the gate in January ready to wipe away Trump-era and decades-old policies.    Biden suspended border wall construction, paused most deportations for 100 days, stopped forcing asylum-seekers to wait in Mexico while their claims were being processed, and scrapped bilateral agreements that allowed the United States to send asylum-seekers to Central American countries.

But Biden was unable to avoid a border surge that began brewing at the end of former President Donald Trump’s term. The number of people encountered attempting to come across the border illegally had climbed from 17,000 in April 2020 to 78,000 in January. By March, more than 172,000 people were coming across the border. Federal law enforcement at the U.S.-Mexico border stopped 178,622 people trying to enter the country illegally in April, the highest amount in more than two decades.

More than 61,000 migrants released into the US from the border under Biden by Anna Giaritelli,

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/more-than-61-000-released-border-biden

More than 61,000 immigrants who illegally crossed the U.S.-Mexico border have been released into the United States since President Joe Biden took office, according to federal data.

The federal immigration agencies that are responsible for apprehending and detaining immigrants have instead discharged tens of thousands of migrants into the country, despite the Biden administration’s claims that most migrant families are not being taken into custody in the first place. And it is the first time that an administration has greenlighted the release of immigrants without telling them when to appear in court, as previous administrations have done during surges.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Border Patrol allowed 61,312 illegal immigrants to walk out of their stations in February, March, and April. The number is a staggering increase from the 18 people who were let go during former President Donald Trump’s final full month in office, when the number of families showing up at the border was one-tenth of what it is at present. (Historically, though, more people attempt to migrate to the U.S. in the springtime than in the winter or summer months.)

The releases of adults and families do not include the tens of thousands of unaccompanied children who are also being discharged by the Department of Health and Human Services.

They Heard It through the Grapevine: Illegals Are Coming from All Over By Mark Krikorian

https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/they-heard-it-through-the-grapevine-illegals-are-coming-from-all-over/

People around the world are responding to La Invitacion delivered by President Biden through his campaign rhetoric and executive actions.

The border crisis continues, with the total number of illegal immigrants encountered at the border in April at a 21-year high for that month, though up just 3 percent from March. But families (adults traveling with minors) from countries other than the usual Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, or El Salvador made up 30 percent of all illegal-alien families apprehended in April, up a whopping 34 percent from the previous month.

The New York Times reports that they’re coming not only from farther afield in Latin America — Venezuela, Ecuador, Brazil — but also from India and the Middle East. The reporter quotes the director of a shelter in Tucson that helps illegal immigrants after they’ve been released into the U.S. by the Border Patrol as saying, “We never worked with such large numbers with this diversity,” including speakers of Arabic, Haitian Creole, Hindi, and Portuguese.

This being the New York Times, the story is framed as being about “pandemic refugees,” which is not a thing, because fleeing “unimaginable levels of illness and death and decimated economies and livelihoods” doesn’t make you eligible for the line-cutting exemption from immigration limits that is asylum.

But there’s no hiding the fact that the border crisis is entirely a creation of President Biden:

While most of the migrants do not necessarily understand the intricacies of U.S. border policy, many said in interviews that they perceived a limited-time offer to enter the United States. Friends and family members already in the country, along with smugglers eager to cash in, have assured them that they will not be turned away — and this is proving to be true.

“What we’re hearing back home is that the new president is facilitating entry, and there is demand for labor,” said Rodrigo Neto, who came from Brazil, where the pandemic killed his business and left him overwhelmed by debt. “I couldn’t pass up this opportunity.”

Byron York’s Daily Memo: A disaster entirely of Biden’s making by Byron York, Chief Political Correspondent | | May 17, 2021 08:42 AM

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/byron-yorks-daily-memo-a-disaster-entirely-of-bidens-making

A DISASTER ENTIRELY OF BIDEN’S MAKING. The more we learn about the true dimensions of the crisis at the U.S.-Mexico border, the worse it is. Now, a new report says that in the last few months U.S. authorities have encountered illegal border crossers not just from Mexico, or the Northern Triangle countries, but from 160 nations around the globe. People are coming to Mexico from the most distant spots on the planet in order to cross illegally into the United States, confident that President Joe Biden will let them stay. And Biden is doing just that.

“More than 12,500 Ecuadoreans were encountered in March, up from 3,568 in January,” the New York Times reports. “Nearly 4,000 Brazilians and more than 3,500 Venezuelans were intercepted, up from just 300 and 284, respectively, in January. The numbers in coming months are expected to be higher.”

And then there are the migrants coming from India and Asia. “Some reported taking buses in their hometowns to a big city, like Mumbai,” reporter Miriam Jordan noted, “where they boarded planes to Dubai and then connected through Moscow, Paris and Madrid, finally flying to Mexico City. From there, they embarked on the two-day bus ride to reach the Mexico-U.S. border.” Aid workers report seeing migrants from everywhere — “Arabic, Haitian Creole, Hindi and Portuguese speakers,” among many others.

“Many of them are entering the United States through wide openings in the border wall near Yuma, Arizona, sparing them from the risky routes through remote desert regions,” the Times added. That would be the border wall that Democrats and their allies in the courts and media did everything they could to stop President Donald Trump from building. Now, the world is flooding in through gaps in the wall that Trump was able to build or strengthen.

Why are they coming? Because they have heard — correctly — that this moment presents a huge opportunity to enter the United States illegally without fear of being sent home. “While most of the migrants do not necessarily understand the intricacies of U.S. border policy, many said in interviews that they perceived a limited-time offer to enter the United States,” Jordan wrote. “Friends and family members already in the country, along with smugglers eager to cash in, have assured them that they will not be turned away — and this is proving to be true. ‘What we’re hearing back home is that the new president is facilitating entry, and there is demand for labor,’ said Rodrigo Neto, who came from Brazil.”

Rep. Young Kim (R-California 39): Biden’s immigration crisis – my Texas border trip showed cartels thriving, migrants at risk Biden admin policy changes are contributing to this crisis and hurting Americans

https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/biden-immigration-crisis-texas-border-trip-cartels-migrants-young-kim

After visiting our southern border with a bipartisan delegation in South Texas and back home in California, it is clear that the situation continues to be a national security, public health and humanitarian crisis.  

It’s also clear that while we need to come together to address the root causes of mass migration, recent policy changes made by the Biden administration are contributing to this crisis and hurting Americans, straining our Border Patrol and Customs and Border Protection officers on the front lines, endangering migrants who are making the perilous journey to the U.S. in search of a better life, and undermining legal immigrants.  

Meanwhile, drug cartels are taking advantage of this crisis, exploiting migrants to increase revenue and accelerate the smuggling of drugs and weapons and other illegal activity across our southern border.

President Biden said in his joint address to Congress that his policies as vice president “helped keep people in their own countries instead of being forced to leave” but “the last administration shut it down.” 

However, the Biden administration’s recent decisions to roll back policies from the last administration without thoughtful policy replacements are encouraging the opposite. The administration’s lack of a plan is exacerbating the border crisis, straining resources everywhere from the border to communities I represent in California’s 39th District.  

DHS Created ‘Operation Sentinel’ To Combat Human Trafficking But it should be renamed “Operation Back Rub.” Michael Cutler

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2021/05/dhs-created-operation-sentinel-combat-human-michael-cutler/

On April 27, 2021 the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) issued a press release, DHS Announces Operation to Target Criminal Smuggling Organizations, that heralded the creation of what was described as a new multi-agency anti-smuggling effort, “Operation Sentinel.”

Here is how the press release began:

WASHINGTON — Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro N. Mayorkas today announced a new counter-network targeting operation focused on transnational criminal organizations affiliated with the smuggling of migrants.

“Transnational criminal organizations put profit over human life, with devastating consequences,” said Secretary Mayorkas.  “With the help of our federal and foreign partners, we aim to cut off access to that profit by denying these criminals the ability to engage in travel, trade, and finance in the United States. We intend to disrupt every facet of the logistical network that these organizations use to succeed.”

The new anti-smuggling effort, called Operation Sentinel, is a collaborative effort with U.S. Customs and Border Protection, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, the U.S. Department of State, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation and Drug Enforcement Administration of the U.S. Department of Justice.

It is hard to imagine that the Biden administration is sincere about its desire to combat human trafficking and alien smuggling, because, as I noted in my recent article, “Biden Amps Up The Immigration Delivery System,” The refusal to declare a border crisis is more than a matter of semantics.

Could it be that the administration created the illusory Operation Sentinel to respond to the concerns of the American public but not to actually combat the smugglers who are part of the immigration delivery system?

On April 19, 2021, roughly one week before the DHS issued the press release about the creation of Operation Sentinel, The Hill published an opinion piece, “Biden’s border polls lower than bottom of Rio Grande,” that began with the following:

Homeland Secretary Mayorkas blames Trump administration for unaccompanied minor surge on border Mayorkas said the surge in unaccompanied children began under the Trump administration.

https://justthenews.com/government/congress/dhs-secretary-mayorkas-blames-trump-administration-unaccompanied-minor-surge

Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas told Congress on Thursday that the Trump administration is responsible for the growing number of unaccompanied illegal immigrant minors on the southwest U.S. border.

“We began our work with systems and tools that the prior administration had dismantled and with assistance programs that had been torn down or cut short,” Mayorkas said during a House Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee hearing. 

Mayorkas said the former administration had dismantled facilities used to temporarily hold migrant children and programs that supported legal immigration and said it ended the Central America Minors Program that provided a legal pathway for children to enter the U.S.

The Trump administration “did nothing to facilitate addressing of the surge. What they did was they dismantled the tools that we had to address it. And they tore down the programs that could have helped alleviate the pressure,” Mayorkas said.

Biden urged to dump ‘absolutely abysmal’ Harris as border czar, poll agrees by Paul Bedard,

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/washington-secrets/biden-urged-to-dump-absolutely-abysmal-harris-as-border-czar-poll-agrees

Vice President Kamala Harris’s lack of action on the border has prompted a call for President Joe Biden to dump her as his border czar.

“Her response to the border crisis has been absolutely abysmal, so I am requesting that she be replaced as your ‘border czar,’” Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich wrote in a letter to Biden.

With his state overwhelmed by the historic surge of illegal immigrants, Brnovich has led the leaders in border states to call for immediate action from the administration — calls that have so far been ignored.

He said he has reached out to Harris, who has yet to visit the border. But, he added, “I have not received a response from Vice President Harris or anyone in your administration.”

YouGov America

@YouGovAmerica
Do Americans have a favorable or an unfavorable opinion of Vice President Kamala Harris? US adults: 41% favorable / 48% unfavorable Democrats: 74% / 19% Independents: 32% / 57% Republicans: 12% / 84% https://today.yougov.com/topics/politic

His letter, shared with Secrets, came at the same time a new poll found national disgruntlement with the new vice president.

Migrant children held in mass shelters with little oversight

https://apnews.com/article/donald-trump-immigration-health-coronavirus-pandemic-government-and-politics-3b4e480c9021e6a8e02313f4c73a497e

By GARANCE BURKE, JULIET LINDERMAN and MARTHA MENDOZA

The Biden administration is holding tens of thousands of asylum-seeking children in an opaque network of some 200 facilities that The Associated Press has learned spans two dozen states and includes five shelters with more than 1,000 children packed inside.

Confidential data obtained by the AP shows the number of migrant children in government custody more than doubled in the past two months, and this week the federal government was housing around 21,000 kids, from toddlers to teens. A facility at Fort Bliss, a U.S. Army post in El Paso, Texas, had more than 4,500 children as of Monday. Attorneys, advocates and mental health experts say that while some shelters are safe and provide adequate care, others are endangering children’s health and safety.

“It’s almost like ‘Groundhog Day,’” said Southern Poverty Law Center attorney Luz Lopez, referring to the 1993 film in which events appear to be continually repeating. “Here we are back to a point almost where we started, where the government is using taxpayer money to build large holding facilities … for children instead of using that money to find ways to more quickly reunite children with their sponsors.”

A U.S. Department of Health and Human Services spokesman, Mark Weber, said the department’s staff and contractors are working hard to keep children in their custody safe and healthy.

A few of the current practices are the same as those that President Joe Biden and others criticized under the Trump administration, including not vetting some caregivers with full FBI fingerprint background checks. At the same time, court records show the Biden administration is working to settle several multimillion-dollar lawsuits that claim migrant children were abused in shelters under President Donald Trump.

Part of the government’s plan to manage thousands of children crossing the U.S.-Mexico border involves about a dozen unlicensed emergency facilities inside military installations, stadiums and convention centers that skirt state regulations and don’t require traditional legal oversight.

Inside the facilities, called Emergency Intake Sites, children aren’t guaranteed access to education, recreational opportunities or legal counsel.

New England Journal of Medicine Pushes Open Borders By Wesley J. Smith

https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/new-england-journal-of-medicine-pushes-open-borders/

I always say that if you want to see what will go terribly wrong in the country, read the professional journals. Radicalism. Woke perspectives. Transgender ideology. Critical Race Theory in health care. Socialized medicine. “Nature rights” advocacy. It’s all there in the world’s foremost professional publications, along with advocacy for policies reflecting those views.

That matters because the people who write for and publish these journals are part of the ruling elite who exert tremendous influence on legislation, executive decision making at federal and state levels, court rulings, business practices, etc..

The radicalization of the intellegentsia is a major factor in the hard-left shift we see in political advocacy and policy. In the latest example, the New England Journal of Medicine offers an article advocating for open borders for illegal alien children and their families. Literally. From, “When Undoing is Not Enough,” (the “undoing” refers to Trump border polices–which the authors claim was legal “torture,” and the goal is to reduce “trauma.”):

First, under the Biden administration’s leadership, the United States could minimize the amount of time that migrants spend in Mexico and in detention. We believe that unaccompanied children, pregnant women, and families should never have to wait to cross the border.

That would sure slow the flow, wouldn’t it? But not just “children:”

Second, the Biden administration could carefully consider the unintended consequences of allowing children, but not entire families, to enter the United States. This policy forces parents to choose between prolonging their children’s exposure to life-threatening trauma in Mexico and sending them into the United States unaccompanied.

And to sweeten the pot, free health care for all!