New Border Numbers Show Biden’s Shell Game Isn’t Working

There’s no “90% drop in illegal immigration” in sight, as the latest border numbers from April show.  At the Southern border alone, over 211,000 illegal aliens were arrested or expelled in April.  This not only represents the second-highest total ever recorded for the month of April (after April 2022), but it also marks four months of steady increases.  Indeed, as these data from Customs and Border Protection (CBP) demonstrate, illegal crossings at the Southwest border are climbing back towards the record high seen in December 2022.

CLICK HERE TO VIEW INFOGRAPHIC: FY SOUTHWEST LAND BORDER ENCOUNTERS BY MONTH

This four-month increase comes despite the Biden Administration’s plan to hide the disastrous border situation from the public through its illegal parole programs. Since January, the Biden Administration has been flying aliens without visas from four countries (Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Venezuela) directly into the interior of the U.S. and granting them parole to avoid them from being counted at the southern border.

This program has failed to hold back the tide, however.  As the data show, the number of Haitians arrested at the border in April is 42 percent higher since December – the month before the program began.  Meanwhile, the number of Venezuelans arrested at the southern border since December is up a whopping 330 percent.  Clearly, the magnet created by a weak border still overpowers any shell game the Administration implements to hide the numbers.

Other disturbing figures have also emerged from the April numbers release. Overall arrests of suspected terrorists are sharply up at the border. The 16 suspected terrorists arrested trying to sneak into the U.S. at the Southern border last month are more than the entire total of the previous administration.

In addition, a new front has opened up in border insecurity. The number of people crossing the Northern border illegally, normally a few thousand monthly, has been consistently over 10,000 monthly for the past year and continues to reach record highs. As the Biden administration focuses its resources on the disaster it has created at the Southern border, new opportunities for dangerous human smuggling are emerging in the North.

The Biden administration needs to come to grips with what Ponzi scheme operators have known for decades. Numbers can be easy to manipulate at first, but if the facts on the ground don’t change, the whole house of cards will always come tumbling down.

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.

EDITORS NOTE: This FAIR column is republished with permission. © Copyright 2023 Federation for American Immigration Reform, All Rights Reserved.

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