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Insane: Biden Administration Triples Down on Border Crisis Failures

Guy Benson
Guy Benson  |  August 11, 2022 1:05 PM

We knew that the Biden administration was attempting to end the successful Trump-era "Remain in Mexico" policy because they fought the issue all the way to the US Supreme Court (and won) last term.  Sure enough, Team Biden has decided that the existing border crisis isn't quite bad enough yet, so they're formally canceling a program that has prevented countless illegal migrants with illegitimate asylum claims from being released into the American interior with their adjudications pending. 

When migrants knew they'd have to wait in Mexican territory as the process played out, they were far less incentivized to travel illegally to the United States. But with a far higher likelihood of being allowed to stay indefinitely (a large percentage of these released migrants never show up for their court dates), the magnet is much more powerful. We've been witnessing the disastrous results of backward incentives play out throughout the Biden presidency – and now here's another step in exactly the wrong direction: 


Illegal migrants now officially know that they have a very good chance of being processed and released into the United States under this pivot away from an empirically succeeding policy. They also know that deportations have been very severely restricted by the anti-enforcement Biden/Mayorkas Department of Homeland Security. And yes, illegal immigrants – and especially their cartel coyotes – keep close tabs on US policy and adjust behaviors accordingly. The multi-billion-dollar "illegal immigration to the US" industry is absolutely booming. And that's not all. Title 42, one of the last remaining tools in the enforcement toolbox is being quietly shut down, too. It wasn't a splashy announcement, just deliberate attrition. Here's a border district congressman blasting what he says is the effective end of Title 42, on top of the demise of "Remain in Mexico": 


They're silently phasing out one important enforcement mechanism while officially ceasing another. As we've mused in the past, it's hard to see all of this as anything other than intentional. Some vulnerable Democrats have issued press releases about Title 42 and feigned independence from Biden's crisis-fueling approach, but it's all talk. Senate Democrats have voted against enshrining the policy in the past, and given yet another opportunity to do so last weekend, they voted in lockstep to shoot it down: 

Senate Democrats stuck together in floor votes over the weekend to stop immigration-related amendments to their budget reconciliation bill, sidestepping Republican efforts to exploit divisions in the Democratic caucus ahead of the midterm elections. Republicans failed to attract any Democratic votes on an amendment to extend border asylum restrictions under the public health directive Title 42

When the rubber meets the road, "moderate" and vulnerable Senate Democrats in battleground seats vote with Biden, Schumer, and the party. Their "independent" rhetoric and spin are hollow posturing. I'll leave you with another fresh example of that phenomenon, which we've written about this week: 

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Meanwhile down at the border, on and on it goes. We'll get the July border numbers (encounters and known got-aways) within the next few days, with August already well underway: