Billy Long: It's a crisis, Mr. President

(From Seventh District Congressman Billy Long)

One of President Biden’s campaign slogans was to ‘Build Back Better’. Unfortunately, he is doing no such thing when it comes to the illegal immigration crisis his policies have caused in just the first two months of his presidency. 

In fact, his policies are tearing down all existing norms and laws surrounding illegal immigration into our country. 

Essentially, President Biden has effectively hung a neon ‘Open’ sign along our border, and people are accepting the invitation.

The Biden Administration has termed what he has caused at the southern border as a “challenge” when really, this is a crisis the likes we haven’t seen in over a decade. In February, Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents had over 100,000 encounters at the southwest border. 96.5% of those encounters were migrants apprehended attempting to cross into the United States illegally. 

This is the highest February total in fifteen years. We can only imagine the number of people who aren’t caught by CBP.

So how did we get here? The answer is simple: poor policy. Among President Biden’s very first actions as President, he stopped construction of the wall at the southwest border, halted deportations, and restarted the Obama-era catch and release policy. He also has provided illegal immigrants with incentives to cross the border illegally with his proposed immigration plan. 

His plan would grant millions of illegal immigrants lawful status in the United States, ultimately giving them a pathway to full U.S. citizenship. The prospect of granting amnesty to millions of illegal immigrants will only cause more to come, which is what we are seeing happen now. 

This proposal also does nothing to increase enforcement - no money for the wall, no money to ensure that our country has a secure border. The very idea of these policies possibly becoming law is causing an illegal immigration crisis of massive proportions. If the Biden proposal becomes law, I fear that what we are seeing now will only be a taste of what’s to come.

The worst part about this though is that the administration wants you to believe that this isn’t a crisis, it’s a “challenge,” and they will go to any length to misrepresent what is happening at our southern border. Along the border, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has migrant detention facilities to process illegal immigrants. 

The Biden administration has floated renaming these detention centers “reception centers”. This proposed name change underscores the fact that President Biden does not want to enforce any immigration laws and that when you arrive in the U.S. illegally, you will be welcomed at our “reception centers” where you’ll be released into the country.

This lax effort to enforce immigration laws that have been duly passed by Congress is nothing short of pathetic. The Biden Administration can attempt to sell the “it’s a challenge” and “reception center” fluff to the American public but no one is buying it. 

Just two months into Joe Biden’s presidency, the number of illegal immigrants has gone up month over month, our border patrol agents are completely overwhelmed, and illegal immigrants who have tested positive for COVID-19 are being let into the country. This was a completely preventable crisis and there is just one man who is responsible for manufacturing it: President Joe Biden.