Once again the smugglers and the migrants have out-maneuvered the Biden administration. Though the official numbers for August haven’t been released yet, the Washington Post reports today that families crossing the border hit an all-time record last month.
The U.S. Border Patrol arrested at least 91,000 migrants who crossed as part of a family group in August, exceeding the prior one-month record of 84,486 set in May 2019, during the Trump administration.Families were the single largest demographic group crossing the border in August, surpassing single adults for the first time since Biden took office…
The August tally brings the total number of “family member units” surrendering at the southern border during the current fiscal year to more than half a million people, a record, with one more month to count.
Back in 2019 when the previous record was set under the Trump administration, the situation was universally considered a crisis. Is it still a crisis?
CBP records show major increases this summer in migration from Guatemala, Honduras, Ecuador, Peru and an array of nations in Asia and Africa. The arrival of thousands of parents with children in remote areas amid triple-digit temperatures is a major humanitarian, linguistic and logistical challenge.
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The Biden administration has expanded the border agency’s network of climate-controlled “soft-sided” tent facilities with medical staff and social workers on hand to help care for children. But many families still first encounter traditional CBP stations, which have windowless, grim detention cells with concrete benches and were designed as short-term holding facilities for adults.
In short, the Biden administration is still going to be putting “kids in cages” just as was happening during the Trump administration. That was briefly a very big story as Democrats complained about the inhumanity of it all. We don’t see much of that same concern now, just as we don’t have any leftists shouting about “concentration camps” any more.
Beyond the question of hypocrisy by the media and Democrats, there’s the fact that the Biden administration has failed to stop the flow of migrants with its new approach. I wrote back in July that while the administration’s new approach hadn’t reduced the influx it did seem to have reduced the level of chaos. Roughly the same number of people were still coming across the border every month but now more of them were making appointments on an app, creating a somewhat orderly process. Fewer people were just showing up unannounced.
But here we are two months later and the overall numbers are climbing again. As described above more of the new arrivals than ever are families. That’s not an accident. It has been widely known for months that the Biden administration was mostly giving families a pass. If you showed up with your children your chances of getting into the interior of the country to wait out your court date was much greater than if you showed up alone. Migrants have clearly gotten the word and are doing their best to take advantage of the opening.
Finally, I can’t let this go without repeating again that the vast majority of these people will not qualify for asylum. It may take 5-7 years before a judge formally reaches that conclusion but that’s the conclusion that will be reached for a majority of these folks. They are economic migrants coming across the border for a better job and a better life. I’m sympathetic because I would much rather raise my family here than in Central America. The majority of these families are decent people. But as a matter of law and process, they are gaming the system. The overwhelming majority will be told they have no legitimate claim to asylum and they’ll just stay here anyway. We really should put a stop to that but we can’t because this failed and broken system produces outcomes the left likes.
