Biden's Immigration Criminality

In its recent report, the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) estimates as of June 2023 that approximately 16.8 million illegal aliens reside in the United States, a 16% increase of the illegal alien population during the first two years of Joe Biden’s presidency. 

FAIR explains that the alarming and rapid increase in the illegal alien migration can be attributed to Biden and his Administration’s policies that encouraged more illegal immigration – many of which were implemented during the first few months of the Biden administration.  It notes that these include:

• “Throughout the 2020 campaign, President Biden promised to extend amnesty to illegal aliens in the United States.
• “On his first day in office, President Biden sent an immigration bill to Congress that included an amnesty program and pledged his support to give illegal aliens a path to citizenship.
• “The Biden administration immediately issued an executive order directing agencies to take steps to preserve the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program.
• “The Biden administration stopped construction of the border wall.
• “The Biden administration expanded the grounds for claiming asylum by reversing legal opinions issued under the Trump Administration.
• “The Biden administration ended the Asylum Cooperative Agreements (ACAs) with Guatemala, El Salvador, and Honduras which required migrants to apply for asylum in one of the countries through which they traveled (and be denied) as a prerequisite to eligibility for asylum in the United States.
• “The Biden administration issued a policy to exempt unaccompanied minors and family units from expulsion under Title 42, releasing these populations into the U.S.
• “The Biden administration revived the Obama Administration’s policy of allowing immigration judges to administratively close deportation cases.
• “U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) issued policies that make it easier to apply for benefits, including work permits, extended and expanded programs like Temporary Protected Status, eliminated the ability of officers to issue Notices to Appear (NTAs), and reduced screening and vetting in order to process more petitions and applications.” (FAIR, ibid.)

According to FAIR, “[m]any migrants expressly stated they were entering the United States because they felt President Biden was inviting them. Some even wore t-shirts with the President’s name on them.” (Ibid.)

House Committee on Oversight and Accountability Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) delivered the following remarks at a February 7, 2023  hearing titled “On The Front Lines of the Border Crisis: A Hearing with Chief Patrol Agents” summing it up in the following:

• “Starting on his first day in office, President Biden signaled to the world our borders were open.  Open to criminals, human traffickers, and drug traffickers.
• ‘His administration’s policies have eroded deterrence and stripped away enforcement tools.
• “He halted construction of border barriers, even though Congress had appropriated nearly $1.4 billion for wall construction just a month before.  
• “He issued a press release announcing a new immigration bill proposal that would give amnesty—legal status and a path to citizenship—to millions of illegal immigrants in the United States, signaling to the world that breaking our laws would not lead to detention and removal. 
• “President Biden’s Department of Homeland Security issued a memorandum instituting a 100-day moratorium on deportations for most illegal aliens and limiting ICE’s ability to enforce the law.  ICE arrests plummeted almost immediately by more than 60 percent.  …
• “Secretary Mayorkas doubled down on these policies by issuing a memorandum restricting law enforcement’s ability to enforce the law against illegal immigrants.  
• “Even though a Federal Court has said that the executive branch cannot override clear congressional commands in the law through these memos, President Biden’s administration is still fighting in the courts on the side of illegal immigrants, not the American people. 
• “[Ironically,] Administration officials continue to say they are creating a “safe, orderly, humane” immigration system.” 

Heritage Foundation President Kevin Roberts in penning “Biden’s Open Border Policy Fuels Violence Against Women and Children” (June 12, 2023) wrote:

“As long as Biden incentivizes foreigners to illegally immigrate to the United States by leaving the southern border unsecured, Mexican drug cartels will continue to have a river of prey to rob, rape, abuse and exploit. Women and children will remain the most vulnerable. U.S. authorities will continue to process abused children, raped women and dead bodies as part of their day-to-day jobs. 

“And American taxpayers will continue to bankroll Washington’s unconscionable complicity in drug smuggling, human trafficking, and organized savagery against helpless women and children.”

FAIR notes in this connection that since the Biden actions were taken:

“…the number of apprehensions (arrests and expulsions combined) at the Southwest border has risen to unprecedented levels. A total of 2.4 million illegal aliens were apprehended at the U.S.-Mexico border in Fiscal Year (FY) 2022. This is a record-breaking annual number that even surpassed the FY 2021 total of more than 1.7 million. In the first seven months of FY 2023 alone, apprehensions have already exceeded 1.4 million and are easily on pace to match the previous years’ grim records. Hundreds of thousands of these individuals were released into the country to await an adjudication on what are often fraudulent asylum claims. Additionally, over a million gotaways completely evaded border inspection and law enforcement. As can clearly be seen from a visualization of apprehensions, the Biden administration’s levels are consistently at an extremely high level that exceeds all previous administrations.”

In conclusion, President Biden and his regime have clearly encouraged, induced, and invited the mass onslaught of illegal immigration on the Southwest Border and enabling drug and human trafficking by the cartels and the entry of terrorists to enter our nation with little fear of apprehension.  These actions of the Biden regime have not only exacted great financial costs to American taxpayers, but also increased the risk to the safety and security of the American people as those criminal gotaways infiltrated our cities.

So, has Biden, Mayorkas, Garland, and their disciples rewritten this particular statute to exempt themselves in this way?

§1324. Bringing in and harboring certain aliens

(A) Criminal penalties

• (1)(A) Any person, except Joe Biden and associates, who-…
• (iv) encourages or induces an alien to come to, enter, or reside in the United States, knowing or in reckless disregard of the fact that such coming to, entry, or residence is or will be in violation of law; or
• (v)(I) engages in any conspiracy to commit any of the preceding acts, or
•     (II) aids or abets the commission of any of the preceding acts, shall be punished as provided in subparagraph (B).

(B) A person except Joe Biden and associates, who violates subparagraph (A) shall, for each alien in respect to whom such a violation occurs-…

• (ii) in the case of a violation of subparagraph (A)(ii), (iii), (iv), or (v)(II), be fined under title 18, imprisoned not more than 5 years, or both;…”

When is criminality, not criminality? Ask Joe…Better yet, perhaps, indictments are in order.

Bob Carlstrom is the president of AMAC Action.