Biden Border Crisis: 3 Million Illegal Crossings

Customs and Border Patrol reported apprehending nearly 3 million migrants attempting to illegally cross the southern border in fiscal year 2022. The record-breaking number of encounters is 1 million more than fiscal year 2021. Additionally, 599,000 migrants are known to have evaded authorities. 

Axios: The CBP said it stopped migrants more than 2,766,582 times for the 12 months ending on Sept. 30, 2022, which is much higher than the 1.72 million times from the previous fiscal year…

Republicans have hit out at the Biden administration on the issue, which has been a logistical and political nightmare for the Democrats. Recently, Republican governors have been transporting migrants and asylum seekers by bus and plane to Democratic cities.

In September, border officials arrested 227,000 migrants, including 20 known or suspected terrorists. In September of 2020 — before the Biden administration reversed President Donald Trump’s immigration policies — just 58,000 immigrants were caught crossing the border.

WSJ Editorial: About 19% of migrants apprehended in September were repeat offenders, meaning they had been encountered at least once in the previous 12 months. This reflects that the border is so porous that migrants will keep coming even if they are arrested once or more. They know they’ll get through sooner or later.

A second theme is the rise of migrants from the tyrannies in Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua. In September, 77,302 individual migrants encountered were from the three socialist failures compared with 58,068 from Mexico and northern Central America.

This reflects the incentives sent by U.S. asylum policy, which allows even economic migrants claiming asylum to remain in the U.S. until their claims are heard by immigration judges. That can take months or years. The message is that migrants from these countries have a decent chance of making it into the U.S., and staying when they do.

There is also a humanitarian crisis at the border. A record-breaking 856 immigrants died crossing the border in FY22. Migrants also face extortion, kidnapping and human trafficking by Mexican drug cartels that have turned the porous border into a $13 billion, profit-generating business.

Bottom Line: Joe Biden’s policies created a national security and humanitarian crisis at the southern border.