Fixing a Porous Border
We all know one of the major issues for voters in the 2024 general election was illegal immigration.
All were aware that over the past 4 years U.S. Customs & Border Protection (CBP) has recorded 10.8 million people allowed into the country, primarily through our southern border’s ports of entry. Border patrol has recorded another roughly 2 million known getaways since the start of FY 2021, roughly four times the number recorded from FY2017-2020. We also knew, as did foreigners coming, that “asylum” was the magic word that opened the flood gates at the borders.
A quick aside, CBP combines customs, immigration, border security, and agricultural protection into one agency of the Dept of Homeland Security (DHS).
Under the Biden administration saying “asylum” was all it took to gain entry. Oh, these illegal aliens were all given court dates to prove they deserved asylum, but the administration also knew that a small percentage of immigrants ever show up for an immigration court date set for 2-4 years hence – after entry.
US law recognizes the right of asylum for individuals seeking protection from persecution. People who seek that protection while outside the U.S. are termed refugees, while people who seek protection at the US border are termed asylum seekers. Those who are granted asylum are termed asylees.
Those seeking refugee or asylum status must show that they suffered persecution in the past or have a well-founded fear of future persecution in their country of nationality and permanent residency on account of at least one of the five protected grounds: race, religion, nationality, political opinion, or membership in a particular social group.
Immigration law doesn’t set a limit on asylees, but the President does set a limit on refugees.
As the influx at our Southwest border continues to overwhelm border patrol agents, Air and Marine Operations (AMO) agents, and CBP officers, our northern border has also experienced a surge of illegal crossings in the last several years. CBP reports encounters at the northern border increased to more than 500,000, a 600 percent increase compared to FY 2021. The number of Mexican nationals encountered at the northern border increased 1,000 percent in FY 2024 compared to FY 2021, showing that as resources were shifted to the Southwest border crisis, many inadmissible aliens sought to take advantage of potential new vulnerabilities at the northern border.
Since FY 2021, CBP has encountered 5.5M single adults – overwhelmingly young males – 2.66M family unit individuals, and 546,255 unaccompanied children at the Southwest border. This administration has provided transportation – both ground and air to basically all illegals for location in the interior.
Further, since FY 2021, 9,055 pounds of fentanyl were seized between ports of entry by Border Patrol, compared to just 1,604 pounds from FY 2017-FY 2020.
More than 390 illegal aliens on the terrorist watchlist have been apprehended attempting to cross our Southwest and northern borders between ports of entry since the beginning of FY 2021—an increase of more than 3,000 percent compared to FY 2017-2020. No one knows how many more terrorists crossed without encounters with border patrol because agents have been overwhelmed with processing those millions at border gates.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) deported more than 270,000 people to 192 countries over a recent 12-month period, the highest annual tally in a decade, according to a recent report. At the same time, 650,000 criminal illegal aliens are currently on ICE’s Non-Detained Docket (NDD). The NDD is a list of every person the United States it believes is a removable non-citizen criminal who is physically present in the United States and not currently held in ICE detention.
How do illegal immigrants get support from federal programs like Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), Medicaid and supplemental food (SNAP), SSI, CHIP and others? Normally immigrants need to meet a 5 year stay in the country to be eligible for these programs, but this administration has put illegals on “probation” making most eligible.
The Biden administration has intentionally used unlawful mass-parole schemes to accommodate inadmissible aliens to ports of entry for release into the interior, often with little or no vetting. One can only surmise the intent was for illegals to apply for citizenship after 5 years or more – and become voters for this administration’s Political Party.
And speaking of citizenship, there is no law that says a child born here is a U.S. citizen. There are those who disagree citing the 1865 passage of the 14th Amendment that grants birthright citizenship. That amendment was aimed solely at providing citizenship to the freed slaves who were born in this country. If it were meant for everyone born here, it wouldn’t have taken a 1924 law granting citizenship to native Indians. There is a law, The Immigration and Nationality Act passed in 1986, that provides for citizenship for a child of a married couple – one of whom has been a citizen for at least 5 years.
Further, states and cities that have declared themselves “sanctuaries” for illegal immigrants are spending unbudgeted billions on housing, food and health – to the anger and dismay of local residents who have seen their school gymnasiums, community centers and hotels become immigrant shelters, their schools’ teachers dealing with non-English speaking children at the expense of their own children’s education, and their swamped hospital ERs.
Borders are important for a nation’s sovereignty and security.
In short, borders are at the heart of international peace, order, and prosperity. The recent successful attacks on US borders should give every citizen pause – especially when that ‘invasion’ is invited.
We find ourselves starting 2025 with at least 13M more illegal residents than 4 years ago – and not only don’t we know who many of there are, we don’t know where they are, including over 300,000 unaccompanied children.
However, we do know employment growth the past several years has been dominated by immigrants, according to The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
All around, it’s an understatement to state our immigration system is a mess – and needs fixing.
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Have a great and prosperous week.
Hug somebody.
References:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asylum_in_the_United_States
https://www.alllaw.com/articles/nolo/us-immigration/how-many-people-can-get-asylum.html#toc-1
SPIDER Bytes
This week’s trivia question is: What is the human body’s largest organ? The answer to last week’s question re: the NFL quarterback who has thrown the most touchdowns: Tom Brady. He passed for 649 TDs. Drew Brees had 571 and Peyton Manning 539. Brady is also the record holder for the most career ‘playoff’ passing touchdowns with 88, followed by Joe Montana and Aaron Rodgers, both with 45. For the old-timers – before the wide-open offenses of more recent years, Johnny Unitas had 290 passing TDs, Sonny Jergenson 255, George Blanda 236, Y.A. Tittle 212.
The wildfires that burned wide swaths of home and businesses in Los Angelos County last week left over 10,000 homes/businesses destroyed and resulted in 11 deaths so far – and thousands homeless. For some reason apparently the reservoirs were empty, ergo, fire departments had little or no water to fight the various fires. It’s obviously a failure of preparation and incompetent leadership. Oh, and the fires are still not out.
The judge in the NY case of falsifying NY business records against Trump convicted him Friday without jail time, fines or probation. Ever heard of that happening – a conviction without penalty? The whole thing, including the indictment, literally begs to be appealed.
President Biden bestowed the highest civilian honor to 19 recipients last Saturday. Among those receiving the Medal of Freedom were Hilary Clinton, George Soros, Liz Chaney and Tim Gill – an LGBTQ+ activist.
A Republican Congress is now doing what nobody wants them to do – pass a sweeping bill in support of president-elect Donald Trump’s priorities. It covers everything from immigration to tax cuts to energy. We want Congress to focus each bill on one issue/subject. Experience has shown these ‘omnibus’ bills are thousands of pages long, unread by many Congressional members and prone to ‘tit for tat’ amendments. The average folk have little idea of what’s in them or happening – and that’s the major thing wrong with these type bills. Tackle one subject at a time and put everyone on the record for how members of Congress voted on it.
Last week President Biden’ office, in one of his staff’s final actions, banned all offshore drilling in 625 million acres off the East and West coasts, the Eastern Gulf of Mexico and Alaska’s North Bering Sea. Expect a suit if Trump undoes the order, because President Biden invoked the 1953 Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act to issue the order to prevent new fossil fuel developments in the areas included. It may take Congress to undo that EO.
After 93 launches (and rocket recoveries) from Cape Canaveral in 2024, Space X sent up its third launch of 2025 last Wednesday. Elon Musk’s Space X company is now working closely with the military’s Space Force in testing rockets and orbits. Space Force now has its own launch complex on the Cape.
Admitting to acquiescing to censorship at the behest of the Biden administration re: COVID several years ago, Mark Zuckerburg, CEO of META (Facebook), announced his re-support of free speech and moving the company’s fact check operation from CA to TX.
France is now requiring parking lots be covered with solar panels to expand the use of green energy in the country.
The BLS reported that 256,000 jobs were added in December. That included 33,000 government jobs, below the average of 37,000 jobs/month added in 2024. The federal government now has over 3 million employees. The healthy report puts the Fed in an even bigger box for any further action on interest rates.
