Biden’s Belated Border Numbers Tell a Terrifying Tale

Late on Friday October 21, Customs and Border Protection (CBP) finally released the September numbers for illegal aliens encountered at the Southwest Border: 227,547, an all-time high for any September on record. The numbers themselves make it clear why the Biden administration is so keen on keeping them out of the press and away from public view. In a functioning administration, legally mandated reporting of routine data doesn’t require coaxing or righteous vows. Unfortunately for Americans, the Biden administration’s sole function on the border seems to be allowing as many illegal aliens to cross as possible while trying to obscure that fact from the interested public.

September’s numbers cement the Biden administration as record-breaking: Fiscal Year 2022 (October 1, 2021 to September 30, 2022) included 10 of the highest monthly totals of illegal aliens ever recorded, with July and August’s records having been set in 2021 under the same administration. No matter how late the totals are, nor the excuses the administration provides every month, they just confirm the grim reality American communities affected by unprecedented illegal migration have been experiencing under de facto open borders.

The shameful encounter total for Fiscal Year 2022, including both Border Patrol and Office of Field Operations, is 2,766,582. This total doesn’t include an estimated 600,000 “gotaways” in the same period who simply walked across and made it into the United States without ever encountering immigration enforcement. If it wasn’t for former border security officials like Mark Morgan and Tom Homan holding the Department of Homeland Security to account for its failure to release the numbers on time, it would be unsurprising if these figures were obfuscated for months. Just two weeks ahead of a crucial midterm election, they represent a massive increase from the previous administration, and expose what is effectively an open-borders policy.

How can American cities and towns be expected to cope with this never-ending influx? 17,000 aliens, a tiny percentage of the total annual number of migrants, arriving in New York City from overwhelmed border towns was enough to create a state of emergency, and most places do not have the same vast resources or emergency response capabilities that New York can mobilize. According to the monthly encounter data, the Biden administration’s soft immigration policies are drawing the equivalent of a mid-size city to our border every month, many of whom will end up fading away into the interior of the country. This unconscionable failure of security is occurring during a rent and housing crisis that is putting the most basic necessity, shelter, increasingly out of reach for many of the same Americans now competing for jobs with illegal arrivals. Additionally, our natural and built environments are simply not capable of absorbing this unregulated flood of illegal migration.

As the United States enters a winter of recession, Americans have only the cold comfort of knowing the Biden administration is rolling out the red carpet for their competition.

AUTHOR

Michael Capuano

Michael Capuano joined FAIR in 2022. As a researcher and staff writer, he contributes to the work behind FAIR’s long-form research publications as well as topical content responding to immigration-related issues as they happen.

Before joining FAIR, Michael worked in the Enforcement and Removal Operations Law Division at Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) during law school at George Washington University and then as an immigration attorney at a Spanish-speaking law firm. Having grown up in Southern California and with experience on both sides of the issue, he is acutely conscious of the importance of the immigration issue to everyday life and the necessity of FAIR’s vision for reform.

Michael’s background before law school was in Urban Studies/Planning at the University of California, San Diego, informing a deep concern for the environment and good urban design, two issues very relevant to the current immigration crisis.

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Border Incompetence Leaves Over 60,000 Aliens in Limbo, Drawing Fire from All Sides

More than 100,000 New York City Kids are Homeless, While Migrants are Put Up in Swank Hotels

EDITORS NOTE: This FAIR column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

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