by Bethany Blankley
During President Joe Biden’s speech to Americans on Wednesday night, he said his administration had secured the border.
Without discussing border policy in his 10-minute speech, he touted his efforts in two sentences, saying: “We’re also securing our border. We have fewer crossings today than we did when the previous administration left office.”
Similar claims have appeared in several publications.
“July is on track to see the fifth straight monthly decline in migrant apprehensions at the U.S.-Mexico border and the lowest level of illegal immigration since the fall of 2020.” – CBS News reported“Migration crossings drop by 55 percent” Newsweek reported; have fallen ‘more than 40 percent since Biden announced asylum restrictions,’ CNN reported.
“Biden Finally Lowers Border Count” – The New York Times reported.Politicism marked Biden’s claim that “the number of migrants coming to our… border illegally… has declined dramatically” is “mostly true,” according to his so-called “Truthmaker.”
Given all the data, including the modern ways the Biden administration is allowing foreigners to enter the country, these claims are untrue.
As a central square reported Since the beginning of 2021, when Biden took office, the number of people crossing the border illegally has been increasing, not decreasing.
Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris and several corporate media outlets cite incomplete arrest data, excluding at least 2 million escapesthose who have evaded capture and are in the country illegally. It is not known how many of the fugitives are violent criminals or potential terrorists.
The data they cite also does not include millions of foreign nationals who were unlawfully released rather than detained and deported, former Border Patrol agents say, including through parole programs created by Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas that Republican attorneys general and other elected officials say are illegal.
“Biden and Harris cannot hide the truth about our open border. They still encounter it on a daily basis, almost four times more often than the Trump administration did after Trump implemented his policies,” former Immigration and Customs Enforcement Director Tom Homan, who served under six presidents, told The Center Square.
Harris, whom Biden has described as his “border tsar“in 2021, and the president is “basically playing catch-up by bringing thousands of illegal immigrants into the country through the CBP One program and the CHNV program,” Homan said. “They’re saying these are ‘legal pathways,’ so they don’t have to count them as illegals between ports of entry,” which are known as apprehensions.
People entering through parole programs, at ports of entry and between ports of entry “are the exact same population,” Homan said, regardless of whether the administration labels them differently. The processes created by Harris and Mayorkas are “an illegal abuse of the federal parole statute, and they know it,” Homan said.
Homan also repeated previous warningsaying, “The most crucial data point is this: How many illegal immigrants has this administration released into the United States despite the legal requirement to detain them? At least 8 million.
“It’s a terrifying data point that far exceeds many administrations combined. Historic.”
The arrest data alone indicates that Biden’s claims are false.
For example, a total of nearly 206,000 people were apprehended in June, compared to nearly 212,000 in June 2023, nearly 248,000 in June 2022 and nearly 209,000 in June 2021, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection data. data.
The number of monthly encounters at ports of entry with foreigners without legal basis for entry increased from almost 20,000 in January 2021 to over 117,000 in June 2024.
Last June, the largest number of illegal immigrants in US history – more than 17,700 – were apprehended at the northern border.
Since January 2021, modern records have been set for the highest number of arrests in almost every month and year. SW AND northern bordersbiggest fears known or suspected terrorists, non-citizen criminals AND Gang membersand the largest seizures of weapons and drugs in U.S. history.
Under the Trump administration, there were nearly 527,000 apprehensions in fiscal year 2017, 683,000 in fiscal year 2018 and more than 1.1 million in fiscal year 2019, according to CBP data. Under the Biden administration, there were more than 1.95 million in fiscal year 2021, more than 2.7 million in fiscal year 2022 and more than 3.2 million in fiscal year 2023, according to the data.
More than 2.5 million people have been arrested this fiscal year, eclipsing any year under the Trump administration.
The number of people detained also does not include the 680,500 foreign nationals brought to the U.S. through the CBP app, which Homan and the attorneys general who sued to block utilize of the app say is illegal.
The totals also do not include 104,130 Cubans, 194,027 Haitians, 86,101 Nicaraguans, and 110,541 Venezuelans released into the U.S. under parole programs (CHNV) in defiance of federal law barring their entry. The CHNV process is directly linked to violent crimes committed against Americans by parolees, The Center Square reported.
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Bethany Blankley is a contributor at Central Square.
