Despite denials, it is evident that the U.S. southern border is, essentially, open. Immediately after taking office, the new White House ceased construction of the border wall. No explanation of what actions would be taken to protect the border and prevent illegal aliens from streaming across has been given, largely because there are no such measures in place. The current Administration has reduced border security, stopped deportations, and promised amnesty.
A Heritage study notes that “When the Trump administration ended, the U.S. was deporting more people than were illegally coming into the country. In less than a month under Biden, the number of people illegally coming into the country grew to more than 6,000 per day—that’s six times the crisis level as set by the Obama team.”
Questioning the lack of logic of the new administration when it comes to illegal border crossing is neither political nor racist. Indeed, even Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador has laid blame for the crisis on Biden’s shoulders. He noted that the expectations the new Administration raised gave many throughout Latin America the belief that they would be allowed entry into the United States, encouraging them to undertake a dangerous journey north.
What are the practical considerations? Consider the numbers.
According to World Division.org, around 1.89 billion people, or nearly 36% of the world’s population, live in extreme poverty. Nearly half the population in developing countries endure on less than $1.25 a day. In Latin America alone, notes one source, “30.1% of those live in poverty Continuing the upward trend that has been recorded since 2015 in Latin America, 30.1% of the region’s population was below the poverty line in 2018, while 10.7% lived in situations of extreme poverty –rates which are seen rising to 30.8% and 11.5%, respectively, in 2019.”
Almost all of those, worldwide and especially in Latin America, would benefit by moving to the U.S. No fair accounting could conclude that the U.S. could absorb any significant portion of the impoverished Central American poor.
Even before the Biden surge, the cost to the U.S. taxpayers was enormous. The Federation for American Immigration Reform provides this estimate of costs: “At the federal, state, and local levels, taxpayers shell out approximately $134.9 billion to cover the costs incurred [by illegal immigration.]
The dangers to the American people are enormous.
In terms of health, the dangers are not limited to the widely publicized incidents of COVID being brought into the nation. The medical site SMA reports that “Illegal immigration may expose Americans to diseases that have been virtually eradicated, but are highly contagious.”
A Judicial Watch analysis of federal statistics notes that “Seventy percent of illegal Aliens in federal jails were convicted of non-immigration crimes…The U.S. government spent at least $162 million last year to incarcerate tens of thousands of criminal illegal immigrants for committing crimes that include rape, murder, kidnapping and terrorism.”
An analysis of the illegal immigration and the drug trade notes that “Drug trafficking and [illegal] immigration are strongly correlated because most of the illegal drugs that enter the United States originate outside the country. Thousands of undocumented immigrants from various countries work as couriers, smuggling narcotic and other banned drugs into the United States.”
The impact on those seeking illegal entry is disastrous. According to the Department of Homeland Security, rape is commonplace. Video of children as young as three being tossed over 14-foot walls, and thrown overboard from boats have horrified viewers. People in general are being starved or endangered from lack of water.
American taxpayers and illegal immigrants suffer from Biden’s policies, but drug cartels are profiting.
Frank Vernuccio serves as editor-in-chief of the New York Analysis of Policy & Government.
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