Last month was the worst June in DHS history, on the metric of encounters with illegal migrants at the southern border. It marked the fourth consecutive month of apprehensions over 200,000. Some hacks pretend that this is proof that the border is secure, because all those people were caught. This ignores two obvious points: First, a great many of the apprehended immigrants affirmatively want to get captured because they believe – often correctly – that they'll be processed by US officials and then released into the country. Many of them are flown and bussed to cities of their choosing, thus completing the final leg of the human trafficking process on the cartels' behalf, at taxpayer expense. Talk about incentives.
Second, every month also witnesses tens of thousands of known "got-aways." These are people who are detected crossing into America unlawfully but who are not stopped due to a lack of resources and manpower (see update). There is also an unknowable number of unknown "got-aways" who enter America totally undetected. Since the beginning of last fiscal year, we are approaching 900,000 known got-aways – drawing ever closer to the one million mark with each passing day. A million. A number that is larger than the entire population of the president's home state, as I recently noted on Fox:
During that segment, we focused on complaints from blue city mayors who've been grousing about the financial strains and burdens caused by illegal immigrants arriving in their cities. They blame this problem on Republicans, of course, not the Democratic administration that has opened the floodgates to this crisis through outrageous policies. No, they're upset that they have to deal with even a tiny fraction of the dysfunction that has been roiling border states and communities for many months. Some of my colleagues have written about such whining from Washington DC's Muriel Bowser and New York City's Eric Adams. It's pretty amazing to hear them lash out after being subjected to only a small taste of the overall crisis and to point fingers at exactly the wrong culprits. Meanwhile, the Biden White House has also denounced the government of Texas for sending busloads of illegal immigrants straight to the nation's capital:
ABC's Karen Travers asks Karine Jean-Pierre if the White House will be providing any relief to New York City and Washington D.C. because Texas is bussing so many illegal immigrants to these cities and dropping them off.
— Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) July 19, 2022
KJP says this bussing of migrants is "shameful" behavior. pic.twitter.com/7gXrsE2lL1
What's "shameful" about it? Please tell us, specifically. I don't think she can answer that question in a serious or meaningful way. It's pure deflection, signaling that people should be angry at the other party. Just don't think too hard about why. This, as the president's Homeland Security chief continues to insist that the border is secure, which is laughably insulting:
Border Patrol officials are blasting Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas for claiming the southern border of the US is “secure,” calling it a “lie” as the nation just shattered the record for most border stops in a single year. “Look, the border is secure,” Mayorkas insisted during the Aspen Security Forum on Tuesday. “We are working to make the border more secure. That has been a historic challenge.” While a total of 1,746,119 migrant encounters have been recorded in FY 2022 — which began in October — as of June, the secretary pointed fingers at lawmakers for the historic numbers. “I have said to a number of legislators who expressed to me that we need to address the challenge at the border before they pass legislation and I take issue with the math of holding the solution hostage until the problem is resolved,” he said.
There is no doubt that Congress could and should do more to help mitigate this mess, though the ruling party is positively allergic to focusing on enforcement. But Team Biden immediately dumped a series of successful Trump-era policies that had helped control the flow of illegal migration upon taking office. They bear primary responsibility for the unfolding disaster, and they can't spin things otherwise. The president is deep underwater on the issue, earning a dreadful (-27) in the latest Fox News poll. And on and on it goes:
This week, RGV agents arrested 17 gang members, 3 sex offenders, and a migrant previously convicted of cruelty to a child. Read more:https://t.co/PPydXBrX0x pic.twitter.com/ia1sXYgd1C
— Acting Chief Patrol Agent Joel Martinez (@USBPChiefRGV) July 22, 2022
The Del Rio Sector is continuing to see record numbers of apprehensions.
— Chief Patrol Agent Jason D. Owens (@USBPChiefDRT) July 24, 2022
With just over 2 months remaining in this fiscal year (FY), we have already surpassed FY21 totals by more than 65,000.
At this pace, the Del Rio Sector will have over 400,000 apprehensions this fiscal year! pic.twitter.com/iAeD9618L8
I'll leave you with another gleaming monument to "progressive" governance:
Shocker! Two fentanyl traffickers who were released from jail on their own recognizance less than 24 hours after being arrested with 150,000 fentanyl pills during a traffic stop in California last month were both no shows for their court date yesterday. https://t.co/QyYXn5hpnZ
— Bill Melugin (@BillFOXLA) July 22, 2022
UPDATE - More whining from Adams:
Have to admit that I thought this was a silly stunt, but changed my mind by the way these people are throwing a tantrum over a few thousand migrants while insisting AZ/TX just accept tens of thousands without complaint and otherwise bragging about their sanctuary city status. https://t.co/6lwoROqVz5
— AG (@AGHamilton29) July 25, 2022
UPDATE II -
NEW: Per DHS sources, there have been over 500,000 known gotaways at the border since FY’22 began on 10/1, far eclipsing the 389,155 gotaways Secretary Mayorkas reported in all of FY’21.
— Bill Melugin (@BillFOXLA) July 25, 2022
Approx 900,000 gotaways since FY’21 began, bigger than population of San Francisco. @FoxNews