AMAC Exclusive
As AMAC has reported in recent weeks, Joe Biden is already facing an unprecedented crisis at the southern border. Pressure is mounting from the public and the media to stop the unfolding disaster–and members of President Biden’s cabinet have sought to either downplay the situation or blame the Trump administration. But the American People are not buying it: a recent ABC News/Ipsos Poll shows that 57% of Americans disapprove of Biden’s handling of the border, while only 40% approve.
The situation is becoming more dire by the day. New photos and firsthand accounts of conditions at the border, as well as recent data from Customs and Border Patrol (CBP), show that the border crisis is only worsening. Border encounters are on pace to far surpass numbers from recent years, particularly during these peak months for migration from late winter to early spring. In February alone, CBP encountered more than 100,000 migrants, a figure well above the 36,000, 76,000, and 36,000 numbers seen in February each of the past three years.
Perhaps even more concerning than the sheer number of people showing up at the border is that single adults and unaccompanied minors – the two demographics that pose the greatest challenges for border patrol and law enforcement agents – appear to be the groups driving the recent increases. Of the more than 100,000 encounters in February of this year, 71,598 were single adults, while 9,457 were unaccompanied minors.
This massive surge is placing an unsustainable strain on detention facilities at the border. In some instances, more than 2,500 unaccompanied children have been awaiting placement in facilities with fewer than 500 beds. Crowded conditions have also raised concerns for maintaining social distancing protocols in response to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. The New York Post reported last month that the Biden administration was even releasing COVID-positive migrants into the United States.
In light of this crisis, even many in the media are beginning to admit that President Biden’s campaign rhetoric led to the ongoing surge at the border by encouraging migrants to come to the United States. In recent weeks, photos have emerged showing migrants wearing t-shirts with the Biden-Harris campaign logo and the phrase “please let us in.” Despite the apparently clear connection between Biden campaign talk and the arrival of these migrants, President Biden dismisses the notion that the southern border is seeing dramatically higher illegal migration flow because of his campaign promises to offer amnesty and greatly relax border and immigration enforcement. Biden simply says “That’s not the reason they’re coming.”
The migrants themselves apparently do not agree. In an interview with ABC News’ Martha Raddatz, one migrant in Tucson was asked, “Would you have tried to do this when Donald Trump was President?” His reply: “Definitely not…We used to watch the news, and I definitely wouldn’t do this.”
Raddatz clarified, “So did you come here because Joe Biden was elected president?”
“Basically,” the man said.
President Biden has not yet visited the border, and he has been reluctant to allow journalists access to migrant detention centers poverty and other border facilities. When pressed on this issue during his first press conference on March 25th, Mr. Biden stated that reporters would have access to border facilities “as soon as I am in a position to be able to implement what we are doing right now.” He went on to explain that he had yet to visit the border because “I don’t want to be, you know, bringing all of the Secret Service and everybody with me to get in the way.”
In addition to denying members of the press access to border facilities, some lawmakers have also raised concerns about the pushback they have themselves received from members of the Biden administration when they traveled to inspect the facilities being used to house migrant children. During a recent visit to the border, Senator Ted Cruz (R – TX) posted a video to Twitter that appeared to show a woman, whom Mr. Cruz identified as a Biden administration staffer, attempting to block him from filming conditions inside a migrant detention facility.
On March 24, President Biden officially tapped Vice President Kamala Harris to lead the response to the border crisis, placing her in charge of the interagency effort to restore order to the border region. Ms. Harris has no immediate plans to actually visit the border, instead opting to focus on “border diplomacy.” The White House currently backs a plan to send $7 billion to Guatemala, El Salvador, and Honduras in an attempt to alleviate poverty in those countries. How this will stop the current crisis is unclear. Meanwhile, former President Trump, who made numerous trips to the border throughout his presidency, has stated that he is considering a visit to the border soon.
40% APPROVE ??!! This poll must have been taken in an urban city center of population >500k..
I really doubted there are That many so oblivious.
Unfortunately Biden and Harris have no sense of reality and what is actually going on in the streets. And of course they don’t want to go to the border where jobs were lost and materials laying on the ground. The have enough sense that many of these people are coming and reintroducing irradiated illnesses and they don’t want to get say tuberculosis! ????. We have Americans on the street living in tents if they are fortunate. How are we supposed to take care of everyone else. Sounds like a childhood dream. I had it until my mother had to tell me that I can’t save the world. We need to cap it. Entry and spending. It took a strong business man years to get on track. It took 17 hours of signatures to take it back. At least he can still remember cursive. Because we don’t teach it in school anymore. Go Biden and Harris and see what you created. Now our migrant workers are having trouble coming in. How they sleep at night. I can’t because I know history and can read the writing on the wall!
I can’t imagine 40% of our citizens think what is going on at the border is okay. Every single one of the illegals are going to have to be cared for in every regard for the rest of their lives by our current citizens….Folks who have entered the country for freedom and jumped through all the hoops put in place to get here are FURIOUS that now ILLEGALS are being welcomed. Not to share the jobs here, though, because that’s taking away from our legal citizens…..so how do they support themselves with housing, food, medical care, schooling and every other need of any human being without the rest of us chipping in to PAY FOR IT ALL???!!! It’s unconscionable for our government to be allowing this to happen. All the children who are here along with no parent – they’re never going to be able to rejoined; God only knows where each child will be sent to be cared for; the children nor border patrol have any way to contact a parent or identify who might be a parent. And the toll it places on our workers at the border who all have a heart and want to see good people that have been approved be accepted in a proper manner and not have to act as babysitters, guards, and patrol officers to keep the level of mayhem at a reasonable rate! It’s unbelievably true to absolutely everyone involved including the current residents at peace in their own home —– that’s going to be destroyed by a jerk named Joe Biden.
Biden’s honeymoon is over! Hopefully the RINO’s that flipped for Biden are starting to realize they made a HUGE mistake. ANYONE who could POSSIBLY think that the border crisis is NOT Biden’s fault is truly delusional. Before the last election the Democrats told us what they would do; not enough weak minded voters thought it would possibly be that bad. Hopefully those who flipped on President Trump will come back in 2022. By that time anyone with common sense will see the full truth of where Biden stands, if they haven’t already.