Make no mistake:   There is a crisis at the border!

I am disappointed at President Joe Biden’s handling of the immigration situation since taking office.  He simply has not given this issue the attention that is needed.

The Border is NOT Open!

First, let’s address this nonsense that we have a crisis at the border because President Biden has “opened the border”.   That is simply NOT true.  Not even close.

Except for his decision NOT to deport unaccompanied minors and families with small children, the border is closed just as tightly today, if not more so, than it was under Trump.

There has been much talk on Fox News and other right-wing propaganda websites harping on how many more people were apprehended attempting to cross the border under Biden than under Trump.  But the key word there is apprehended.   Biden’s border security is working.  There is no evidence showing that more people are actually crossing the border and getting away with it than under Trump.  The truth is that most of the people crossing the border turn themselves in to seek asylum.

Under the law, ANYONE who enters the U.S. at ANY location and asks for asylum MUST be granted a hearing to determine if they quality.  They cannot be deported until that hearing takes place, which could take months.

However, because of the pandemic, Donald Trump exercised special authority under “Title 42” that allowed him to immediately expel as many asylum seekers as he wanted without a hearing.  

President Biden has chosen to CONTINUE this policy.   In Trump’s last year in office, he was deporting 62,000 asylum seekers every month without a hearing until Title 42.  President Biden has been deporting over 100,000 per month without a hearing.

Donald Trump had also implemented “Migrant Protection Protocols” (MPP), also known as “Remain in Mexico“, which required asylum seekers to WAIT IN MEXICO until their hearing date. This is a horrible policy, as it requires those waiting for asylum to stay in Mexico, which does not have the support facilities needed to take care of these refugees.

To President Biden’s credit, he ended the MPP program when he took office by issuing an Executive Order.  However, the MPP was reinstated back in December after a Federal court ruled that Biden did not follow the steps required in the Administrative Procedure Act in terminating the MPP.   President Biden is continuing the process to formally end the MPP, but it will take some time.

The BOTTOM LINE IS that last year, because of Biden’s continuation of Title 42, less than 12,000 refugees were allowed into the U.S., the smallest number in decades; fewer even than Trump allowed!

More People are trying to get in

What is true about the crisis at the border is that many more people are TRYING to get in.  This is because they THINK it will be easier to get in under Biden than it was under Trump.  Republicans, Fox News, and other liars are not helping this narrative by continuing to tell everyone that Biden has opened the border, which is a flat-out lie.  In fact, Biden has taken steps, including sending Vice President Harris down to Central America with an explicit message NOT TO COME to the U.S.

Crisis at the Border Wall

President Biden issued an Executive Order when he took office to temporarily suspend all construction on the Border Wall.  However, since Congress has allocated money for a border wall, Biden is obligated to spend that money accordingly.  Some construction has resumed on the border wall.  Construction has remained suspended in some other parts while required environmental are being done.  Trump waived this requirement, but Biden has chosen not to waive the requirement.  This will delay construction on some parts of the wall.  Some parts of the wall construction have been permanently terminated.

But let’s not fool ourselves.  In some areas, a physical border wall is needed, especially near cities.  In other more remote area, a border wall is not only a waste of money, but causes environmental, wildlife, and other problems as well.   Not to mention, that in these areas, a border wall is useless.  People can climb over it long before a border agent can apprehend them.  The Chinese build a wall 1500 years ago.  It didn’t work then, and it won’t work now.

But this does not mean that Biden is ignoring Border security.  Other security measures have been implemented, including …..

Immigration Reform can fix the Crisis at the Border!

The Crisis at the Border could be addressed with common-sense immigration reform.

President Biden did introduce legislation that would address immigration reform.  But he has not made this bill a priority, and that bill has basically died in Congress.

Bipartisan immigration reform is desperately needed.  Contact your Congress person and demand that they take action to address this RIGHT NOW.

• We have over 11 million undocumented immigrants living here right now.  It is imperative that we provide a path for the ones who want to BE AMERICANS to be able to come out of hiding.

• There are over 1 million young people who were brought here when they were children who have never known anyplace else.  They need a quick and easy path to citizenship.  They already ARE Americans; let’s give them the legal recognition they deserve.

• Despite what you have heard about “chain migration”, it can take over TWENTY YEARS to legally sponsor your own brother or sister, and that’s only if YOU are already a U.S. citizen.  Distant relatives have to wait even longer, if they can get in at all.  For example, if you are a U.S. citizen and you want to sponsor your own son, he has to fill out an application and wait for it to be processed.  As of March 2022, they are currently processing applications filed in September, 1999!  

Here is the link to the current bulletin from the State Department. See for yourself how long these waiting periods are.   https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/legal/visa-law0/visa-bulletin/2022/visa-bulletin-for-march-2022.html. 

Here are a couple of links to other articles I wrote about this:

Feb, 2018:   https://seriouslyscott.com/demanding-real-immigration-reform/

Feb, 2016:  https://seriouslyscott.com/immigration-reform/