The recent rearrangement of personnel deck chairs on the Titanic is cosmetic posturing. The policy is the problem. Following the forced ouster of Biden's Border Patrol chief, who was a bad choice in the first place, the latest border crisis numbers are in. They're even worse than initial estimates, in case you'd missed it. Not only was last month an October record-setter on border encounters, it blew away last year's mid-crisis number.
This trajectory speaks for itself, as do so many of the results of this president's policies:
BREAKING: CBP reports there were 230,678 migrant encounters at the border in October, the first month of fiscal year 2023. It is an enormous increase over recent Octobers.
— Bill Melugin (@BillFOXLA) November 15, 2022
OCT FY'23 : 230,678
OCT FY'22 : 164,837
OCT FY'21 : 71,929
OCT FY'20: 45,139
OCT FY'19: 60,781 @FoxNews
Officials estimated that roughly 64,000 illegal immigrants entered the country without being apprehended last month, a very high number of 'got-aways' (and the number is likely a bit higher). That's approximately 2,000 per day, every day. That we know of. And yet, this insulting lie was eagerly repeated by the administration's disastrous Homeland Security Secretary, as Julio noted earlier this week:
“Do you continue to maintain that the border is secure?”
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) November 15, 2022
Biden DHS Secretary: “Yes.” pic.twitter.com/yDsZ7iOu3M
As a reminder, there have been more than one million detected known 'got-aways' since this president took office. The crisis is getting worse, not better. And amazingly, within this context, some Congressional Democrats are circulating the idea of further incentivizing illegal immigration with a mass amnesty measure:
Democrats floating plans to tie DACA fix to an omnibus the very same say we find out there was an insane record 230K border counters in October (4x what we saw in Trump’s last year) is quite the look. https://t.co/n2J7wlXBzL
— Matt Whitlock (@mattdizwhitlock) November 15, 2022
As I've said before, I'm actually in favor of a bipartisan DREAM Act that makes an accommodation for young people who were brought to this country illegally through no fault of their own. A standalone, narrowly-crafted bill on this front would be preferable, written in such a way that doesn't invite more of the same. That said, I've turned totally opposed to any such action unless and until the raging border crisis is brought at least somewhat under control. Enforcement -- real, meaningful, message-sending enforcement -- must come first. Period. Stopping the bleeding of this deadly crisis must be the overwhelming priority, and nothing else should pass on this front until that happens. It's a humanitarian catastrophe, it's a national sovereignty disgrace, and it's a public safety and national security concern. The people running the government are actively incentivizing all of it, on purpose. And one of the few tools US officials have been able to use in recent years has now been suspended:
BREAKING: A federal judge has just blocked the use of Title 42 at the border as a result of ACLU litigation. Title 42 allows the U.S. to immediately expel migrants on the basis of public health. It has been used millions of times under both Trump & Biden. T42 is gone, for now.
— Bill Melugin (@BillFOXLA) November 15, 2022
On the way out the door, Biden's jettisoned CBP Commissioner is begging frontline agents to improve their morale:
“I challenge you not to give into the mantra of, ‘Morale’s the worst it’s ever been.’ When we work together to make things better, help each other step away from cynicism, and focus on the many things we do well, that’s when our collective morale improves,” Magnus wrote in the email. Federal border authorities encountered a record of roughly 2.3 million migrants at the southern border in fiscal year 2022. CBP hired a “suicidologist” in early 2021 to address the rising number of suicides the agency has been facing a spike in suicides, the Washington Examiner previously reported...“This administration continues to crumble what’s left of morale and is taking the U.S. Border Patrol to irreparable levels of destruction,” a Border Patrol agent stationed at the southern border previously told the DCNF. “Standing behind someone has now taken a different meaning. Trust in leadership has been cheapened.”
I'd imagine it may be difficult to repair morale among officers who are unable to do their jobs, are increasingly used as pencil-pushing travel agents for illegal immigrants, and are casually smeared by political leadership at the highest levels. I'll leave you with former ICE Acting Director Tom Homan's read on the situation:
Tom Homan Reacts To Biden Administration Forcing Border Head To Resign: ‘They’re Getting Rid Of Him Because They’re Afraid Of Oversight Hearings’#FoxNews #BorderCrisis #BorderPatrol #Biden https://t.co/nhnk47hlS6
— The Guy Benson Show (@GuyBensonShow) November 15, 2022
