- There have been more apprehensions along our northern border in just this past year than in the last ten years combined.
- The highest monthly total of illegal Border crossings ever recorded was during Biden’s Presidency. He also has the second and third highest ever recorded.
- Family group crossings also broke the record last month under Joe Biden.
- The record for total yearly apprehensions happened in 2022 with 2.2 million. We’re on pace to break that record in 2023.
- An overwhelming majority of these people are adult aged males with no family.
The reality is that we’re being invaded and the Biden administration is all too happy to sit back and allow it. Multiple Governors have had to defend their own borders because the federal government refuses.
How much longer can we sustain this?
The opinions expressed here may or may not be my own.
I post links to stuff.
Make your own choices.
The myth of a U.S.–Mexico "open border" [Explainer]
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Axios Latino — As the Biden administration grapples with the soaring number of migrants and asylum-seekers at the U.S.–Mexico border, conservative pundits and politicians have upped accusations that some Democrats support "open border" policies.
The big picture: By using the term "open border," conservatives — including Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, who is seeking the role of House speaker — are suggesting that anyone can get into the U.S. without much hassle. But the reality is that the southern border is more fortified than it's ever been.
Reality check: Since 1992, the U.S. has quadrupled the number of Border Patrol agents — from less than 5,000 to nearly 20,000 today.
[…]
The history of the border
The United States hasn't had an open border since the early 1920s, when it was relatively easy for migrants to cross from Mexico or simply buy a boat ticket from Europe.
Before World War I, there were no American consulates to apply for a visa, and Mexican migrants and Mexican Americans went back and forth between both countries with ease.
Yes, but: The rise of the Ku Klux Klan in the 1920s resulted in the passage of several immigration restrictions amid growing anti-Catholic and anti-Jewish sentiment.
The Border Patrol was created to keep out Chinese migrants coming in from Mexico.
New restrictions were put on Mexican migration, and migrants from south of the border were sprayed with pesticides when they entered the U.S. from about 1910 to 1950.
The fortification of the border
The U.S.–Mexico border became more militarized over the years, but a significant clampdown occurred during the Clinton administration with Operation Gatekeeper and Operation Hold-the-Line, which greatly expanded patrols in Texas and California.
Both efforts were aimed at halting illegal immigration and preventing easy back-and-forth travel through holes in fences. In El Paso, Texas, for example, 400 agents and vehicles were stationed every 100 yards to prevent illegal crossings.
The terrorist attacks on Sept. 11 led to more restrictions.
But, but, but: Migrants continued to try to enter the U.S. without permission in the absence of a timely legal path.
Many died or risked their lives by traveling through the arid Arizona desert, where temperatures reach triple digits.
[…]
What they're saying: "We don't have open borders because the U.S. government is attempting to stop as many people who cross the border as they can," David J. Bier, associate director of immigration studies at the Cato Institute, tells Axios.
In fact, the Biden Administration is now deporting migrants to Mexico even if they aren't from Mexico.
"If the administration was pursuing any kind of open border policy, the number of people being arrested would be dropping. And that's not the case. They're arresting and expelling as many people as ever."
In a show of power and intimidation, Hamas supporters targeted the "Jewish-owned" Hotel Cortés in Barcelona.
They singled out the hotel due to its ownership by the Israeli investor group Nitsba, which acquired it two years ago.
The radicals seized control of the lobby, climbed the building's facade with ladders, and replaced international flags with the Palestinian flag, removing the flags of Germany, France, Italy, and the European Union (EU). in a show of power and intimidation
The opinions expressed here may or may not be my own.
I post links to stuff.
Make your own choices.
The myth of a U.S.–Mexico "open border" [Explainer]
The "open border" claim is based solely on the 8 million migrants who have entered illegally during Biden's regime.
Sure, there are more federal border agents. They all busy releasing migrants into the US and bussing them to American cities.
In the last few weeks, Biden has started deporting some of the illegal immigrants. Nowhere nearly as many as Obama did, but he's starting that policy. Did Axios mention that Biden has only just recently attempted to control migration at the border a bit? They talked about immigration policies of the 1920's and '90's.
Advocates mobilizing opposition against Texas border security bills
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Groups also call for end to Operation Lone Star and Justice Department investigation of migrant deaths, injuries.
Oct 15, 2023 — Migrant advocates mobilize to influence lawmakers as the Texas Legislature votes on border security bills during its 30-day special session.
The legislation includes Senate Bill 4, which increases to 10 years in prison sentences for smuggling migrants or operating a “stash” house; SB 11, which makes illegal entry into Texas a state crime and authorizes state police to arrest violators; and companion bills in the House.
“The Senate has already passed these bills, but there is hope in the House. […] There is a limited amount of time to make them listen to the voices of border communities because those voices are not being heard,” said Luis Figueroa, chief of legislative affairs for Every Texan, an Austin-based advocacy group.
Figueroa and other Texas advocates voiced their opposition to the bills. They discussed strategies to stop them and other state immigration enforcement initiatives during a Friday online seminar sponsored by the Frontera Texas Coalition.
Some of the lawmakers being targeted for calls and emails include State Reps. Todd Hunter, R-Corpus Christi, chair of the State Affairs Committee, and John T. Smithee, R-Amarillo, also a member of the committee.
Figueroa said the federal government and some states have been relying on enforcement-only approaches to irregular migration, and none of them have worked — the migrants keep coming. Further, the bills in the special session usurp federal prerogatives, potentially can send to jail people in mixed-status families traveling with their undocumented relatives, and will further “militarize” border communities, Figueroa and others said.
“We are calling on the Texas Legislature to have the courage to confront this anti-immigrant, xenophobic agenda. Enforcement of immigration laws is not a state prerogative,” said Fernando Garcia, executive director of the El Paso-based Border Network for Human Rights.
Calling on feds to challenge Operation Lone Star
The groups also are calling on the legislature and on the federal government to challenge Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s Operation Lone Star, which in the past two years has cost the state more than $4 billion and surged thousands of Texas Department of Public Safety troopers and Texas National Guard troops to border communities.
“We are wasting money in a politically motivated operation. We are adamant in saying it is not the job of the Texas National Guard to be arresting migrants. They should be withdrawn. Garcia said that the concertina wire, the physical barriers, and the river buoys” should be withdrawn, adding that the $5 billion that will fund Operation Lone Star in the coming two years should instead be spent on health care and infrastructure in underserved border communities.
Garcia called for a Department of Justice investigation into Operation Lone Star for alleged civil rights abuses and migrant injuries in the past two years.
Maria Codero, policy and advocacy analyst for the American Civil Liberties Union in Texas, echoed concerns that the state barriers at the border are leading to migrant injuries, drownings, and migrants opting to risk their lives traveling through remote areas because they cannot turn themselves in between ports of entry to file asylum claims.
More than 1,000 migrants died last year along the U.S.–Mexico border, and advocates are expecting that record to be shattered this year due to the growing number of migrants trying to cross the border and unusually high temperatures, particularly in desert areas.
Source: San Antonio Express-News
Link: expressnews DOT com/opinion/editorial/article/razor-wire-new-mexico-border-greg-abbott-18431275.php
The absurdity of stringing razor wire on the Texas–New Mexico border [Editorial]
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Express-News Editorial Board — We have so many questions about Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s directive to the National Guard to string razor wire on the state’s border with New Mexico, it’s difficult to know where to begin.
On Oct. 9, Abbott shared a news story on X, the website formerly known as Twitter, boasting about the razor wire.
“This is on the border between Texas and NEW Mexico,” he wrote. “Migrants are entering New Mexico illegally then crossing into Texas. We are stopping it.”
In a statement to our Editorial Board, the Texas Department of Military Affairs reiterated Abbott’s social media post: “The Texas National Guard has heavily fortified the border in El Paso with 18 miles of concertina wire. We are now fortifying the border between Texas and New Mexico to block migrants who are entering New Mexico illegally and then crossing into Texas,” the statement says.
If Abbott’s concern is illegal entry, that ship sailed in New Mexico. Just what does a razor-wire fence between states accomplish?
If Abbott is revealing anything in stringing razor wire along Texas' border with New Mexico, it’s that this is exactly why immigration and border security are federal issues; and while walls and fences and other barriers may have some utility in certain areas of the border, they don’t function as a deterrent.
In this regard, Abbott’s use of wire on the New Mexico border is reminiscent of his use of orange buoys in the Rio Grande. Those buoys span 1,000 feet, but the Texas–Mexico border spans some 1,200 miles. It is a symbol, not a solution. And although the focus at the moment is on the Del Rio Sector, four states — California, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas — share a border with Mexico.
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What has been needed for decades is comprehensive immigration reform and genuine coordination between Texas and federal authorities and, apparently, now, Texas and New Mexico. Going it alone often causes harm. Remember 2022, when Abbott ordered DPS officers to conduct inspections of commercial trucks entering the country from Mexico? That stunt cost billions in U.S. trade losses and 36,000 jobs, according to the Dallas Morning News.
Abbott would do well to coordinate with federal, state and local officials, but that would require a much-less political response.
Speaking at a recent virtual roundtable, U.S. Rep. Gabe Vasquez said, “I don’t think putting concertina wire in the Texas section of the Rio Grande and New Mexico is really going to solve anything,” according to the Santa Fe New Mexican.
At the same roundtable, Jerry Pacheco, president of the New Mexico Border Industrial Association, said the influx of migrants has created the need for a new port of entry in New Mexico.
“I just couldn’t believe it,” he said of the razor wire. “It looks like some occupied zone or something.”
Operation Lone Star is popular with many Texans — reflecting a strong yearning for government action on the U.S.–Mexico border. But it is a product of broader political failure rather than a border and immigration solution.
NEW YORK — With Texas on the verge of allowing state police to arrest migrants and order them back across the border, the U.S. Bishops’ Conference Migration chair has criticized both the “false narrative” he believes the policy would accentuate, and the hardship it would force on migrants.
“It saddens me,” Bishop Mark Seitz of El Paso, the USCCB Migration chair, said of the legislation. “I’m very disappointed in the narrative that is being promoted to this day that people who are fleeing to our border are a threat to us in the first place. It’s just a tremendous misunderstanding of what’s happening.”
Speaking with Crux, Seitz highlighted that unlike federal border authorities, under this legislation Texas police would have the authority to send migrants back across the border without even hearing their asylum claims, which “leaves these people stateless with no way to care for their family.”
The new legislation, Texas House Bill 4 (H.B. 4), passed the state House on Oct. 26. The state Senate already passed its own version of the bill, so with the House’s approval it now goes back to the Senate for the two chambers to agree on a version. Once that happens, the legislation heads to the desk of Texas Governor Greg Abbott for his signature, which he is expected to provide.
In essence, the legislation makes entering the United States between ports of entry a state-level crime, and allows Texas officers to arrest migrants — including asylum seekers — and order them back across the border. That type of immigration enforcement is typically reserved for the federal government, which is in charge of immigration policy pursuant to Article I, Section 8 of the U.S. Constitution.
If the Texas legislation passes, it will likely face legal action and head to the courts.
[…]
While he disagrees with the actions and rhetoric of some Texas lawmakers, Seitz acknowledged that the federal government, specifically Congress, “bears a great deal of responsibility” for the nation’s immigration challenges by “keeping in place a broken system.” He added that much of the present crisis is created by the fact that migrants can’t get work authorization.
“We are creating much of the crisis that people are speaking about because we’re not allowing those who are in the asylum process, who have been paroled legally into this country, to work while they’re waiting,” Seitz said. “There’s so many jobs out there, and these immigrants are so frustrated because they would love to support their family. They’re not looking for a handout. They’re just looking for a chance to support their family and security and peace.”
He also said a better job can be done of spreading out the migrants who are legally allowed to stay.
“Immigrants who are coming now don’t, as in the past, have sponsors, so they also don’t know the United States and they’re simply requesting to go to one of the cities they’ve heard of before, and so we certainly need to work with them and let them know about other places that are in a better situation to receive them and have the desires of receiving them,” Seitz said. “Our country’s big. We have so much need for workers right now. We are capable.”
When asked about the border funding, Seitz sighed, and noted the fact that state leaders often talk about the lack of funds to areas such as education and the foster care system.
“Yet, we’re spending billions of dollars on a state level for things that really have little to no impact on immigration,” Seitz said. “It’s just very sad to see that money thrown away.”
A smaller migrant caravan in 2018 sparked many more headlines, but the current caravan is less shocking after thousands of migrants have flooded the southern U.S. border in recent months. The 2018 caravan had between 4,000 and 5,000 migrants.
If any of this mass of human migration were caused by "climate change," the Democrats would certainly have a point to press.
Many of the Venezuelan migrants are fleeing an economic crisis in Venezuela.
Alas... the migrants are simply fleeing from socialism, which Democrats want to bring here.
