01/26/2023
Earlier: In December, Biden Posted The Worst Border Crossing/Invasion Month EVER
President Biden set a new record last month. Thanks to his impeachable refusal to enforce the law, border agents encountered more than 250,000 illegal aliens, the highest monthly total in history. Yet Biden’s flacks claim everything is under control, and even better, that offering parole to the invaders will reduce illegal border crossings (by legalizing them). These smug assertions fail to acknowledge that border crossings for 2023 are expected to exceed 2022’s record. Conservatives say Biden’s parole plan is too generous; the left thinks it’s too restrictive. And now that 20 states have sued to stop it, the plan might fail, and GOP pressure through tough legislation — and one would hope through the threat of impeachment — might finally force the president to enforce immigration laws.
The current border figures are outrageous. As VDARE.com shows in its latest interactive chart, agents have encountered more than 100,000 illegals nearly every month of Biden’s presidency. The 251,000-plus detained in December marked the 10th straight month with more than 200,000. The majority of those caught are released into the country. Fox News reported earlier this month that the Biden Regime released more than 425,000 of 617,250 illegals encountered so far this fiscal year. Under Biden’s watch, more than 4.2 million illegals have been detected at the border. Hundreds of thousands more got away [4.2 Million Migrants Apprehended Along Southwest Border Under Biden Admin, by Bob Price, Breitbart, January 21, 2023].
This picture is not expected to improve any time soon. A new report projects border apprehensions to reach 2.7 million for fiscal 2023, nearly 1 percent of the American population. That would be a 12.5 percent increase over fiscal 2022’s record-breaking 2.4 million. If Title 42 public-health expulsions are stopped this year, we could see an even larger number than that grim projection [Analysis: ‘Mind-Blowing’ Illegal Immigration Under Biden Approaching 1% of Total U.S. Population, by John Binder, Breitbart, January 25, 2023].
But there’s nothing to worry about, Biden’s people say. “Despite their misinformation, our border enforcement measures continue to hold strong with the number of Venezuelan nationals arriving at the border unlawfully continuing to drop dramatically,” an anonymous official told Fox News’s Adam Shaw. This same official also blamed Republicans for December’s record: “Of course the numbers will be higher when Republican elected officials, like smugglers, falsely proclaim the border is open because of a court order to lift Title 42” [Over Quarter of a Million Migrant Encounters in December Alone, CBP Confirms, January 20, 2023]. Another unnamed Homeland Security official told CNN that border crossings have dropped by half this month [Daily border encounters have dropped by more than half in January, DHS official says, by Priscilla Alvarez, CNN, January 24, 2023]. But sources have told VDARE.com that they’ve seen no such dramatic change at the border. Also, border crossings generally go down in the coldest months.
Customs and Border Protection commissioner Troy Miller went on record to tout December’s numbers, Fox’s Shaw reported:
The December update shows our new border enforcement measures are working. Even as overall encounters rose because of smugglers spreading misinformation around the court-ordered lifting of the Title 42 public health order, we continued to see a sharp decline in the number of Venezuelans unlawfully crossing our southwest border, down 82% from September 2022. Early data suggests the expanded measures for Cubans, Haitians and Nicaraguans are having a similar impact, and we look forward to sharing the additional data in the next update.
Of course, the parole plan has nothing to do with border security. Instead, it permits 30,000 “migrants” from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Venezuela to invade legally every month. So a drop in illegal border crossings would not account for the thousands of would-be illegals who would arrive on parole. Parole grants these aliens “temporary” residence in America.
Everyone knows that’s a joke. Once they’re here, they’re here to stay. After all, Treason Lobby judges and bureaucrats can always find a reason to keep a “temporary” foreigner in the country.
The one enforcement mechanism that parolees will face is Title 42. Then again, that didn’t deter the millions who’ve crossed the border on Biden’s watch.
Fortunately, Republicans are doing something about it. Led by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, 20 GOP state attorneys general sued the regime this week. Paxton has successfully sued the regime over many of its past Open Border proposals. The lawsuit argues Biden’s parole decision exceeds the authority of the executive branch and unnecessarily burdens the states. Center for Immigration Studies analyst Andrew Arthur confidently predicted the Biden Administration’s parole proposal will be struck down in court [Joe Biden Claims He Can Expand Legal Migration by 360,000, January 5, 2023].
Stephen Miller, founder of America First Legal, which also joined the lawsuit, correctly identifies the parole program as illegal migration by other means. “[N]ot only is Biden freely admitting illegal aliens who arrive at our borders, but he is now going to foreign countries to pre-approve innumerable illegal aliens to flood into our country without any legal basis whatsoever,” he told Fox News [Texas Leads 20 Republican States in Suing Biden Admin Over Migrant Parole Program, by Adam Shaw, Fox News, January 24, 2023].
At the same time, House Republicans are pushing a bill that will curtail phony “asylum seekers.” Chip Roy and 58 GOP sponsors would authorize the Homeland Security chief to bar all foreigners from entering the U.S. through ports of entry to secure the border. It would effectively end our dubious asylum policies that allow illegals to enter the country under false pretenses. The bill will likely not pass a Democratic-controlled Senate, but it has a decent shot in the House. Unfortunately, Republican wimps such as Texas Rep. Tony Gonzalez complain that the bill goes too far. Leadership has delayed it. Passage would send a strong message to the White House, regardless [House border security bill bumped amid Republican concerns, by Suzanne Monyak, Roll Call, January 23, 2023]. You have to enforce the law, Traitor Joe!
The parole measure doesn’t just face criticism from the Right. The Left thinks it’s too harsh. Seventy Democrats sent a letter to the president this week condemning the use of Title 42 against the program’s designated nationalities. These Democrats, including such powerful figures as Senators Bob Menendez and Cory Booker, see the illegals as innocent asylum seekers. “We encourage your administration to stand by your commitment to restore and protect the rights of asylum seekers and refugees,” the letter stated [Some Congressional Democrats Push Back on Biden’s Immigration Policies, by Eileen Sullivan, New York Times, January 26, 2023].
They held a press conference this week to urge Biden to eliminate Title 42 entirely. Booker compared the enforcement mechanism to the Holocaust. The presser declared that “Asylum is a right.”
Cory Booker compares deporting illegal immigrants under Title 42 to turning away Jews fleeing the Holocaust. pic.twitter.com/4ILykVD3Pg
— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) January 26, 2023
Significantly, no Democrat in House or Senate leadership signed the letter. Democratic leaders know they must appear to be doing something on the border, rather than permitting the invasion to continue. Likewise, though Biden’s parole idea doesn’t stop the invasion, it at least appears to be doing something, particularly in the leftist Mainstream Media’s eyes. That’s what counts for Democrats. But Treason Lobby leftists who complain want full open borders with zero enforcement.
If a federal judge strikes down the parole, Biden will have to do something besides increasing legal immigration. He might even do something that stems the tide if he understands there’s no hope for him in 2024 unless he moves to control the border. Polls consistently show Americans strongly disapprove of how he handles immigration [Poll: Biden’s approval on immigration drops to new low, by Andrew Romano and Caitlin Dickson, Yahoo News, January 20, 2023]. Another year of record crossings will do him no favors. Then again, he’s been reluctant to cross the Treason Lobby. So he might do nothing.
It’s imperative for Republicans to keep the pressure on him — above all, with the threat of impeachment if he continues refusing to enforce federal immigration law.
Washington Watcher II is an anonymous DC insider.
This is a content archive of VDARE.com, which Letitia James forced off of the Internet using lawfare.