Joe Biden Is Manufacturing A Crisis At The Border
I & I Editorial Board
January 22, 2021
I&I Editorial
On his first day in office, President Joe Biden signed six executive orders on immigration, proposed a sweeping amnesty bill, and ordered the Department of Homeland Security to pause deportations.
That’s an awful lot of activity on an issue that he barely mentioned during the campaign. In doing so, Biden is laying the groundwork for a new border crisis – the very thing his predecessor spent four years trying to avoid.
First, let’s set the record straight on the Trump administration’s achievements at the border.
While the wall was the only thing the mainstream press focused on – and which now covers 24% of the U.S.-Mexico border – Trump scored multiple victories in securing the border.
For example, in 2019 his administration started requiring asylum seekers caught in the U.S. to stay in Mexico while their cases got adjudicated. This “Remain in Mexico†policy targeted one of the biggest and most flagrantly exploited loopholes — dubbed “Catch and Release†— whereby asylum seekers were released into the U.S. on the promise that they’d return for their hearing date – which few did.
As we noted a year ago, “the impact of this program has been little short of profound.†Apprehensions by the Border Patrol plunged from 144,000 in May 2019 to 23,237 by May 2020. Total apprehensions in 2020 dropped by more than half from the year before.
As the El Paso Times put it, “the policy has proved to be a virtual wall.â€
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https://issuesinsights.com/2021/01/22/joe-biden-is-manufacturing-a-crisis-at-the-border/
