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Border Crisis: Why is the Biden Administration Sitting on Its Thumbs As Migrant Numbers Surge?

© REUTERS / ADREES LATIFUnaccompanied minors from Central America line up to be transported by US Customs Border Protection officials, after crossing the Rio Grande river into the United States from Mexico on rafts in Penitas, Texas, US, 26 March 2021.
Unaccompanied minors from Central America line up to be transported by US Customs Border Protection officials, after crossing the Rio Grande river into the United States from Mexico on rafts in Penitas, Texas, US, 26 March 2021.  - Sputnik International, 1920, 31.03.2021
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The situation at the border is not getting any better as thousands of migrants and unaccompanied children continue to arrive in the US as the pandemic rages. American observers are raising alarm over the government's unwillingness to tackle the crisis and warning that the country cannot absorb and accommodate the increasing human tide.

On Tuesday, journalists were allowed for the first time by the US Customs and Border Protection inside a detention facility in Texas where more than 4,000 people were placed in a space intended for 250, according to ABC News.

After reversing most of Donald Trump policies which helped contain this tide of immigrant caravans from Latin America, the Biden administration is facing the biggest migrant surge in 20 years. However, White House officials stay tight-lipped about the unfolding crisis, and polls show that 44 percent of Americans want the illegals to be arrested and deported.

Why is the Biden Administration in Denial of the Crisis?

"It's an absolute disaster now at the border, but it's one that everybody could see coming except apparently for the Biden team," says Jessica M Vaughan, director of policy studies at the Center for Immigration Studies based in Washington, DC.

She notes that although the Biden administration was informed about the potential effect of their policies that did not prevent the White House from halting construction of the border wall and reversing policies that were keeping people out during the pandemic. Furthermore, the new administration abolished policies and deals concluded by its predecessors with Central American countries and with Mexico for people to be able to get a safe haven in those countries instead of coming to the United States, Vaughan adds.

​"All of these worked together to stem previous influxes of people under the Trump administration," she says. "But Biden came in and said: 'We're doing away with all of that.' And even though they were warned that it could cause and almost certainly would cause a new influx of people coming, they went ahead and did it anyway. At first they tried to deny what was going on. And now they're scrambling, trying to figure out how either to get control of it or to handle public concern about it. But I don't think they're going to succeed in either one of those."

​There are at least two reasons the Democrat establishment is refusing to call the situation a "crisis" and limiting the press access to border facilities, according to the scholar:

·         First, "they know that Americans would be upset if they understood the record numbers of people coming across, that some days there are more than 1000 kids coming alone, that they're apprehending groups of hundreds of people coming, and that most of the families and kids are being let in."

·         Secondly, "they believe that any amount of immigration is going to be OK, that we can absorb a very, very large number of people, more people than we're taking right now," even though there's not much research or evidence to support the assumption that "it will work itself out".

Apparently, the Dems are hoping for a long-term political gain projecting that these migrants will vote for their party one day, when they become citizens, Vaughan suggests, adding that "that's a pretty tough bet."

Yet another reason why the Biden administration officials are turning a blind eye to the havoc at the border is that they are not really affected by this in their daily life, she notes.

"They don't have to compete for jobs," she says. "Their kids are not going to the same schools as all these unaccompanied minors and kids coming in illegally. They don't live in neighborhoods that are very changed by this influx. So it doesn't affect them personally. So it's not a concern to them."
© REUTERS / GO NAKAMURAAsylum-seeking migrants' families make a line to board a bus as they wait to be transported by the U.S. Border Patrols after crossing the Rio Grande river into the United States from Mexico in Penitas, Texas, U.S., March 26, 2021
Border Crisis: Why is the Biden Administration Sitting on Its Thumbs As Migrant Numbers Surge? - Sputnik International, 1920, 31.03.2021
Asylum-seeking migrants' families make a line to board a bus as they wait to be transported by the U.S. Border Patrols after crossing the Rio Grande river into the United States from Mexico in Penitas, Texas, U.S., March 26, 2021

COVID-Positive Migrants Allowed in on the Heels of Quarantine

Meanwhile, cartels and other criminal groups are taking advantage of the mess at the border while the Biden administration and mainstream media try to hide reality, says Mark Finchem, a Republican member of the Arizona House of Representatives representing District 11.

"Now we have a situation where cartels and coyotes are essentially taking advantage of the people that want to come to our country," he says. "So they're paying them lots of money to get up there, enriching the people who, frankly, are engaged in human and drug trafficking and slavery."

​To complicate matters further, those who are coming across the border have not been quarantined or vaccinated and are likely to be tested positive for COVID-19, according to the politician. Actually, border officials are putting these people on buses and planes and sending them into communities across the country at the taxpayer’s expense, he notes, stressing that this is happening on the heels of a massive 14-month COVID lockdown.

"So there are many of us policy-makers that are now asking the question: 'Well, OK, if it was important 14 months ago, why isn't that important today?'" he says.  "And it's kind of silly - we hear radio commercials and television commercials from the CDC telling us how important it is to wear masks and to get the vaccination and to quarantine yourself if you're feeling sick. So we're beginning to think that the policy that the states were subjected to at the direction of the CDC is more politically based than it is scientifically based. We've got some real concerns about the Biden administration. I for one believe that it's probably as corrupt as they come because what they're doing is, in my mind, criminal."

The US mainstream media is behaving no better in this critical situation, according to Finchem: "My opinion of the media has never been lower," he says commenting on their attempts to smear Donald Trump over keeping migrant children "in cages" but largely ignoring the inhuman conditions unaccompanied children are being held in today.

​"They couldn't tell the truth if it smacked them in the face," he says. "They are nothing more than actors, propaganda actors who are on national media spewing a story."
© REUTERS / Office of Congressman Henry Cuellar (TX-28)/HandoutMigrants crowd a room with walls of plastic sheeting at the U.S. Customs and Border Protection temporary processing center in Donna, Texas, U.S. in a recent photograph released March 22, 2021
Border Crisis: Why is the Biden Administration Sitting on Its Thumbs As Migrant Numbers Surge? - Sputnik International, 1920, 31.03.2021
Migrants crowd a room with walls of plastic sheeting at the U.S. Customs and Border Protection temporary processing center in Donna, Texas, U.S. in a recent photograph released March 22, 2021

From Crisis to Catastrophe

As the federal government is doing little if anything to fix the situation, the US is likely to see 150,000 arrivals a month, according to some estimates. This is fraught with great risk, according to the observers.

"There's only one word that I can think of that describes it, and it's 'catastrophe'," notes Finchem. "I mean, this is a flood of people that we are not prepared to take care of. We spend a lot of money. The United States is in debt up to its eyeballs in an effort to try and help other nations and other populations, as if we're the world's lifeboat."

Jessica Vaughan shares the politician's concerns stressing that in the long run it's going to cause serious problems in the communities that are forced to absorb all of these new illegal migrants and it's going to be very costly in terms of social services and public health care. Furthermore, it will place an additional burden on the schools "because of all these kids who are coming in who have very challenging educational needs."

She does not rule out new COVID-19 outbreaks across the country because of the Biden administration's border policy. Eventually, it will backfire on the White House's immigration reforms, according to Vaughan, "because the public is eventually going to lose confidence in our immigration system if they feel that it's constantly out of control."

"And for all those people who voted for Joe Biden, it makes no sense to me that you wanted a $15 minimum wage and you're now going to have so many illegals here that employers are going to pay them under the table," adds Finchem. "Congratulations. You totally screwed yourselves."
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