Raw facts suggest the Biden Administration is creating a “misery wave” unlike anything we have recently seen. The wave – a six-fold crest – involves same-time spikes in illegal immigration, drug trafficking, lockdown overdoses, drug legalization, police defunding, and homicides. The wave will begin showing up in national data within months. Here is what we know.
Based on current data, six trends are afoot, with no indication of slowing. Each is a separate concern. Taken together, they represent a unique threat to public health and safety. While different, they reinforce each other. That is the sober truth – which should concern all.
Trend One: Illegal immigration is being fanned. Biden policies promptly halted border security construction, welcomed unaccompanied minors in unlimited numbers, reversed Trump-era regulations discouraging minors’ placement nationwide, ended Mexican holding of asylum applicants, restarted “catch and release” – setting court dates years out (seldom met), providing “tax funded stimulus checks” to illegal aliens, defending sanctuary cities, reversing ICE retention of sex offenders, curbing deportation of convicted criminal aliens, ending country-specific visa bans, and lifting Trump’s restriction on green cards for aliens on public welfare. See, e.g.,https://www.gopusa.com/stimulus-checks-for-illegal-aliens-newsweek-admits-ted-cruz-was-right/; https://www.foxnews.com/politics/18-state-ags-urge-biden-to-reverse-decision-to-cancel-ice-operation-targeting-sex-offenders; https://nypost.com/2021/02/08/biden-to-curb-ice-deportations-of-illegal-immigrants/; https://nypost.com/2021/02/02/biden-signs-3-executive-orders-reversing-trump-on-immigration/.
Result of Trend One is Spike One, a massive increase in illegal immigration – no end in sight. On the numbers, within six weeks, Americans have seen an explosion. Attempted illegal crossings in February jumped 28 percent, according to CBP. Other numbers are more sobering.
In one month, CBP has “apprehended 100,441 illegal border crossers,” with “another 26,000” evading capture, and by March as many as 4,700 were seeking to enter daily. These are triple numbers from a year ago, a disproportionate number are unaccompanied minors – a 61 percent increase in one month. Word is out, so parents send minors north – many abused in the process – to get into America, then bring them along.
Compounding the problem, many have COVID-19, a fact not discovered until released, as Biden does not test at the border. Under federal law, minors must be moved from CBP to HHS custody within three days, from there to Heartland hosts, further fanning COVID’s spread via illegal immigration. See, e.g., https://www.christianpost.com/news/texas-shelter-housing-migrants-sees-spike-in-covid-19-infections.html.
Further agitating this public health and safety crisis, many intercepted are known criminals, including sex offenders and gang members, and holding capacity is maxed out. See, e.g., https://www.theepochtimes.com/illegal-border-crossings-hit-more-than-101500-in-february_3727175.html; https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/immigration/number-attempted-illegal-border-crossings-rises-28-percent-february-n1260484; https://www.dailysignal.com/2021/03/03/number-of-illegal-border-crossings-is-six-times-what-obama-team-considered-crisis/; https://www.usnews.com/news/national-news/articles/2021-03-10/border-crossings-by-unaccompanied-migrant-minors-soared-in-february.
Trend Two. Cross-border drug trafficking is surging. While Biden refuses to acknowledge a “crisis” – or take responsibility – drug trafficking is surging. Mexican cartels are running heroin, fentanyl, cocaine, meth, and synthetics as if no tomorrow. As one headline proclaimed, “As Cartels Get Stronger Due to Border Chaos, More Violence Expected in US.” Why? As one law enforcement officer explained, “they do not fear us.” Biden is a paper tiger. See, e.g., https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/usa-border-crossing-crisis-biden-b1814799.html; https://www.cnsnews.com/article/washington/melanie-arter/texas-congresswoman-border-created-crisis; https://sanangelolive.com/news/crime/2021-03-05/cartels-create-meth-crisis-border
Trend Three. Lockdowns are pushing drug addiction and overdoses. Even as trafficking surges, lockdowns push depression, isolation, alienation, and escapism. The link is not theoretical, cross-border trafficking reinforcing a spike in addiction and overdoses. As DEA confirms: “Illicit fentanyl coming across the Mexican border is chiefly responsible for fueling the escalating opioid crisis” with “overdose deaths … at record highs.” Experts now predict “overdose deaths are not going to get lower,” but “go through the roof this year because of the migration issue.” https://www.theepochtimes.com/as-cartels-get-stronger-due-to-border-chaos-more-violence-expected-in-us_3725892.html. There you have it.
How bad is this addiction and overdose wave? Bad. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report “fatal drug overdoses nationwide have surged roughly 20 percent during the pandemic, killing more than 83,000 people in 2020.” In another untold story, arguing a fast end to lockdowns, minorities are hit hardest. Not only are job and education gains clipped, but minorities are being swamped by lockdown addiction. Where is Biden? Nowhere to be seen. See, e.g., https://thefederalist.com/2021/01/05/legalizing-drugs-and-opening-the-border-will-only-worsen-our-nations-addiction-crisis/.
Trends Four, Five and Six. Democrat-driven drug legalization, police defunding, and spiking crime – especially a 30 percent increase in homicides in 34 major cities – add layers of misery. Democrat-led states and cities legalizing marijuana watched addiction, crime, drugged driving, and health costs rise, yet now toy with legalizing all drugs. Police defunding is a reality. Homicides are going vertical. See, e.g., https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/seattle-drug-legalization-washington-state-jason-rantz; https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0047235220302361; https://www.rand.org/content/dam/rand/pubs/working_papers/2004/RAND_WR125.pdf; https://www.samhsa.gov/marijuana; https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/editorials/they-really-are-defunding-the-police-and-its-not-going-well
Bottom line: These six trends, taken one by one, would be arresting. Taken together, they are a six-fold crest – a massive “misery wave.” They reinforce each other, amplifying effects. Runaway illegal immigration, “catch and release,” not deporting criminals, invites drug trafficking, reinforces addiction, challenges underfunded police, escalates crime. Lockdowns spur addiction and reinforce trafficking. Police defunding hurts homicide deterrence, while drug legalization – we now know – raises drug use, addiction, overdoes, and crime.
In short, Biden is presiding over a “perfect storm” of his own creation. Advancing failed policies, not taking responsibility, “Biden’s Misery Wave” is coming. While states, cities, towns, and individuals fight back, Biden owns it.