More amnesties will only make the border crisis worse
Washington Examiner
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More than 232,000 migrants were encountered trying to cross the southern border in August, more than in any August before and just 20,000 below the all-time peak set by the Biden administration last December.
It is now three months since President Joe Biden declared victory over illegal immigration across the border with Mexico. His administration claimed its post-Title 42 border security plan was “working as intended.” At the time, southwest land border encounters had fallen from 206,000 in May to 145,000 in June, still more than 100,000 encounters higher than before Biden became president.
THE LEFT’S THOUGHT POLICE ARE DESTROYING AMERICA’S COLLEGES
But since then, the crisis has flared back to life and is a raging fire. Encounters rose 27% to 183,000 in July and another 27% to 232,000 in August. All preliminary indications are that this month’s numbers will be even worse.
The flood of migrants surging across the border creates real problems for communities. That is why Democrats are begging Biden to change his policies. He finally gave in to one of their demands last week, but he changed policy in a way that will make the border crisis much worse.
He granted “Temporary Protected Status” to all immigrants from Venezuela who arrived in the United States before July 31. In theory, this allows immigrants to get work permits immediately instead of having to wait for six months after applying for asylum. TPS is widely considered a form of amnesty because although “temporary” is part of it, virtually no immigrant granted TPS has been deported. In almost all cases, TPS has been renewed indefinitely until those given the designation are granted status by other means.
However, Democrats are quickly realizing that granting work permits to Venezuelans who crossed the border before July 31 isn’t the panacea they hoped it would be. Just as there are backlogs pushing court dates for asylum cases three years into the future, there is an existing backlog for TPS applications. Other TPS beneficiaries are waiting an average of 12 months before their applications and work permits are approved. Adding some 500,000 Venezuelans to that line will make the backlog worse.
More importantly, Venezuelans make up only a small percentage of all migrants flooding into the country. In New York City, Venezuelans make up about a quarter of all immigrants.
Democrats are now asking: If Venezuelans get their TPS amnesty, why not immigrants from other countries crowding shelters? What about Hondurans? Or Nicaraguans? Or Guatemalans? For the first time, the majority of migrants passing through Mexico on their way to the U.S. are from South, not Central, America. Is Biden going to grant them all TPS amnesty? If not, why not? There is simply no logic to it.
The migrants know this. They know that, contrary to Biden’s denials, the border is open. They know their family members will be caught and released into the country and that they will get away with it as long as Biden is president.
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“They have informed each other via social media and chat rooms that they are being released quicker [in some places] than other places and given a report date of three years from their release date,” one Border Patrol official told the Washington Examiner. “When it’s so easy to turn yourself in and you get released in a day … who wouldn’t come?”
According to the latest polling, just 23% of adults approve of Biden’s handling of the situation at the U.S.-Mexico border. On no other topic do fewer people approve of Biden’s policies. Unfortunately, Biden has proven incapable or unwilling to stop the flow. Instead, he is granting amnesties that will make the problem worse.