https://www.city-journal.org/article/border-bait-and-switch
During the vice presidential debate, Tim Walz claimed, “Look, [border] crossings are down compared to when Donald Trump left office.” Similarly, CNN reports, “Migrant crossings at the US-Mexico border remain at their lowest levels since 2020,” while a USA Today headline reads, “Illegal migration at the US border drops to lowest level since 2020.” These claims are true only if one doesn’t count it as a “crossing” when an illegal alien arrives at a port of entry along the border and is subsequently released into the United States.
Because the Biden administration is now funneling huge numbers of illegal aliens towards ports of entry with the help of its CBP One app, encounters elsewhere along the border are down. Yet, there are still far more aliens entering the country each month than there were under Trump—or even Barack Obama. The Biden administration continues to perpetuate the border crisis while simultaneously trying to mask that crisis with subtle policy changes and deceptive phrasing.
The primary reason we’ve had a border crisis for more than three and a half years is that the Biden administration—in a marked departure from every prior presidency—has refused to enforce federal immigration laws. Specifically, it has refused to enforce the requirement that asylum seekers be detained until their claims have been adjudicated. Instead, it has simply released them into the U.S. Knowing this, millions of migrants have arrived at our border, uttered the password “asylum,” and reaped the benefits of this administration’s failure to execute the laws.
The Immigration and Nationality Act declares that “if an alien asserts a credible fear of persecution, he or she shall be detained for further consideration of the application for asylum.” Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito writes that such detention “requirements, as we have held, are mandatory.” Yet the Biden administration has treated these requirements as discretionary, continually releasing aliens into the interior of the country. As U.S. District Court Judge T. Kent Wetherell observes, this has been “akin to posting a flashing ‘Come In, We’re Open’ sign on the southern border.”