At 115 days into the Biden administration, our southern border agents are working overtime to mitigate a mass influx of immigrants attempting to come into our country illegally, by numbers not seen in over 20 years. Currently, border agents are averaging around 5000 arrests , totaling roughly 150,000 in just the month of March, and upwards of 178,000 in the month of April.
Detention centers in every major city along the U.S.-Mexico border are packed beyond capacity, ranchers who own property that’s only separated from our southern neighbors by a fence are finding abandoned children in their fields. Border patrol agents have shared videos of kids left behind by their travel groups and security footage of little ones being dropped over a fourteen foot .
The numbers are skyrocketing, the trauma and injury happening to those who come to our borders illegally – whether by their own will or by the force of now emboldened cartels and trafficking rings – is indescribable. Yet, the administration that promised transparency and humanity has failed on all fronts.
In the initial weeks of this emerging crisis, the strategy of the White House Press Secretary, Jen Psaki, in answering questions about border agents’ claims and experiences, was simply to pretend it wasn’t happening. When pressed to outline any specific plan that the President might have to mitigate the growing crisis, Psaki first insisted that it was not a crisis but rather a .
Later in , Psaki stated that the President hadn’t had the time to address the issue and put everyone’s minds at ease with the reassurance that the priority was to handle the influx of immigrants in a “humane way.” Not to mention, Psaki has taken every opportunity to blame the previous administration for the “mess” it left for Joe to clean up – never mind the large groups of immigrants showing up wearing Biden/Harris .
Awkward.
So, what does this crisis-that-identifies-as-a-challenge look like?
After Biden reinstated the Catch and Release program, stopped the construction on the border wall, and burned Trump’s international agreement, a message resonated to the entire population of South America to start packing your bags and your babies to make the dangerous journey north, leading to the highest number of immigrant crossings in over 20 years.
Opportunistic drug cartels, , and human traffickers were ready and waiting to increase operations once again, to take advantage of unblocked border areas, and resume the enormously lucrative business of transporting and selling lethal substances and human beings to paying clients.
And illegal dealers aren’t just now unrestrained by current policy – they’re emboldened by it.
In the last week, Texas Department of Public Safety, Lieutenant Christopher Olivarez shared photos of an 18-wheeler that had been pulled over by DPS troopers, with hiding in the trailer. Olivarez revealed a of a car being driven by smugglers, which had been pulled over, and upon stopping the people in the car got out and ran. A exposed even more of a shocking revelation – that many of these smugglers are so energized by the recent change in our administration, that they are even live-streaming themselves driving across the border with illegal immigrants in their vehicles.
On several occasions, criminals on terrorist watch lists have been apprehended by border agents, and gang members have been caught leaving children out in the sweltering heat, alone.
In a news interview on May 15th, the Governor of Texas stated that DPS agents have apprehended enough fentanyl in the last 4 months, to in New York.
As such, hundreds of thousands of immigrants have hopped the dividing line between our countries, and the current trajectory will soon put that number into the millions.
As this is all happening, back in D.C., Jen “Circle-Back” Psaki continues to reassure the public, from her air-conditioned conference room, that this administration is focused on humanity and compassion. She pushes this narrative as Joe Biden loses daily fights with his teleprompter, and Harris is busy visiting woman-owned businesses and holding virtual meetings with celebrities.
If by “humanity and compassion,” Psaki means South American families being exploited by criminals and gangs for profit, children being abandoned in the desert after traveling with groups that they are not related to, people dying on their journey, many being tortured and assaulted along the way, and forced into overrun facilities, while denying border agents the aid and resources needed to provide shelter and safety – then yes, I’d agree that this administration has compassion and humanity coming out of their ears.
Shockingly, the response from the White House to this growing problem that’s affecting everyone who isn’t guarded by fences and the military has been slow at best, and minimal when ignoring the crisis hasn’t been an option. It wasn’t until March 24th that Biden finally appointed VP Kamala Harris to the situation, and the middle of April to even admit it was a crisis that they were dealing with.
To date, several requests from the Governors of our border states for meetings with her have been ignored, the pleas from the mayors of border cities for aide and a plan of action have gone unanswered, and no one from the Biden administration has visited the border personally.
The most action we’ve seen from Harris in her new role is a virtual meeting with the President of Mexico on , and she also penciled in a trip to Mexico and Guatemala on June 7th and 8th on her calendar…amidst a flurry of celebrity events and anti-racism-related endeavors.
If this is the response time we can expect from the Biden administration on crisis situations where women and children are being abducted and sold, children are being left to die in the middle of nowhere, unprecedented amounts of lethal drugs are being seized on a daily basis, the agents in charge of keeping our country secure are , and Governors our President should be working with are completely ignored, then we have a long four years ahead of us.
-Samantha Bowers Koch, Outspoken Samantha
