Over the weekend, Vice President Harris downplayed problems at the southern border on two separate occasions stating,
"indeed have a broken immigration system, but our borders are closed."
This statement prompted Texas Governor Abbott to send several buses holding over 100 people directly to the Vice President's home. The buses arrived at 7:30 a.m. this morning and were dropped off 200 feet from her doorstep.
In a live news broadcast, an illegal immigrant getting off a bus in front of Vice President Kamala Harris's house shed some insight into the thought process of migrants and why they are attempting to cross the border in record numbers. When asked if he knew that the Vice President claims the borders are closed, the unknown migrant told a Fox News reporter that the borders are open,
"It is open because we enter. We come in freely."
Another migrant also told the reporter the borders were open,
"We are coming to the border because we know it is open, not closed."
The Vice President is not the only one receiving busloads of migrants from border states Texas and Arizona. "Sanctuary cities" that publicize protecting illegal immigrants from deportation, are seeing busloads arriving in their states.
On Wednesday, two planes with over fifty migrants landed at Martha's Vineyard, compliments of Florida Governor Ron DeSantis.
Martha's Vineyard is off the coast of Massachusetts. The area is a posh summer destination for elite and wealthy vacationers. It's also where Presidents Clinton and Obama both live.
Sanctuary cities such as New York and Chicago made it clear to immigrants that they are protected from deportation in their cities. Until now, the number of illegal migrants finding their way to these cities seemed manageable, and nobody complained.
Since the Governor of Texas started busing migrants to D.C. to get the attention of the Biden Administration, over 10,000 illegal immigrants were bused to both cities along with Washington D.C. Officials are scrambling to deal with the situation, even declaring public health emergencies as Washington Mayor Murel Bowser did recently.
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Chicago Mayor Lightfoot accused Texas Governor Abbott of racism, calling the migrant busing a racist policy, stating Governor Abbott was "without any shame or humanity."
Immediately following Mayor Lightfoot's statements about Governor Abbott, however, several news outlets reported that she, in turn, bused the immigrants into Republican suburbs and is now accused of "using the migrants as political pawns" by Illinois Republican Mayor Gary Grasso.
As republicans and democrats toss illegal immigrants from city to city, each blaming the other, the feds are busting record-breaking human trafficking rings on the U.S. side of the border. Trafficking is a multi-million dollar industry rooted in selling children and adults for sex and labor, bringing in huge multi-billion dollar profits.
According to border states, the 10,000 immigrants divided between the three states are a drop in the bucket. U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents have seen 2,242,413 million immigrants this year alone, up from the total number for the entire year in 2021 of 1,956,519 and 646,822 in 2020.
These numbers do not include the migrants eluding border patrol. Officials in border states say they are overwhelmed and underfunded and desperately need help, but their pleas fall on deaf ears, and nothing has changed.
There were 138 fatalities in June alone of people just trying to cross the border. Although the Biden Administration is pro-immigrant, they have thus far not taken any action to stabilize the situation.
In August of 2020, Biden vowed to make the U.S. a safe place for immigrants to run,
"We're going to restore our moral standing in the world and our historic role as a safe haven for refugees and asylum seekers." -President Biden
In an interview with pbs.org, Amna Nawaz discussed Biden's first-year immigration policy changes and clarified the thought process on immigration.
She told PBS that one of the most significant changes in immigration seen at that time was a decision made regarding the cause of immigration,
"And that was the Biden administration's decision to prioritize and invest in root causes, the reasons people leave their countries in the first place. Vice President Harris was put in charge of that."
-Amna Nawaz
Nawaz also told PBS,
"They have already secured over a billion dollars in private sector and other commitments. It's potentially huge change, but that's the kind of change that will take a while to show up."
The President mentioned immigration briefly in his last state of the union address acknowledging migrants are fleeing persecution and violence,
"We're putting in place dedicated immigration judges so families fleeing persecution and violence can have their cases heard faster. We're securing commitments and supporting partners in South and Central America to host more refugees and secure their own borders." --President Biden
The problem is that promising migrant's safety from violence and inviting them to the U.S. is only helpful if they are not ending up in an even worse situation.
Upon his arrival at the white house, Biden immediately started dismantling Trump's immigration policies which, according to Politifact, is the same thing Trump did regarding previous policies when he took office.
Immigration policy is complicated, but according to texaspolicy.com President Biden overturned some key policies that kept asylum seekers safer and avoided major issues at the border. For instance, a policy that expelled unaccompanied children who cross illegally, even though agents have the legal authority to do so.
Obviously, good intentions backed this policy change but unfortunately, the results are not so good. According to texaspolicy.com the Biden administration inadvertently created a dangerous and sometimes deadly situation for immigrant children.
Texaspolicy.com explains how unraveling policies from the Trump administration is causing harm to innocent children. They claim many policies in place previously were discontinued under the current administration.
The border policies are making children targets of traffickers. Cartels are using migrant children as a ticket into the country. Vulnerable children are being sent with strangers by parents either because the cartels force them or because they desperately need the money offered for their children. Innocent children become human commodities and endure horrific physical and sexual abuse fueled by addiction along with being shuffled back and forth across the border.
Although many people feel Trump was anti-immigration, the Trump-era policies aided in protecting children. The absence of those policies has resulted in record-breaking numbers of people and specifically children, who are sex trafficked and abused.
Studies done by the Latin American branch of the Coalition Against Trafficking In Women estimate that 60% of Latin American children who set out to cross the border alone or with smugglers have been caught by the cartels and are being abused in child pornography or drug trafficking.
The reality is that drug cartels are profiting big numbers, growing substantially, and current immigration laws are helping achieve this success.
The camps set up on the U.S. side of the border to house the detainees are even worse.
Allegations of abuse, overcrowding, inhumane conditions, spoiled food, and frigid temperatures have proved accurate. Although the conditions in the detainee camps are horrific, it seems nobody is regulating the situation or being held accountable. It is hard to believe this is happening in the United States.
Essentially children are being moved from one nightmare to another, but in a place where they don't know anyone and can't speak the language. 147,000 unaccompanied migrant children entered the U.S., and 122,000 children were taken into U.S. custody in 2021; the previous record was 69,000.
According to border states, the 10,000 immigrants divided between the three states are a drop in the bucket.
According to U.S. Customs and Border Protection, the border agents have seen 2,242,413 million immigrants this year alone, up from the total number for the entire year in 2021 of 1,956,519 and 646,822 in 2020. These numbers do not include the immigrants eluding border patrol. Border states are overwhelmed and underfunded and desperately need help.
Not only are immigrants and their children victims of the situation at the border, but so are Americans and their children.
Fentanyl is now the leading cause of death in young people ages 18-45, superseding auto accidents and suicide. Between November 2020 to 2021, 107,000 people died from fentanyl poisoning. The size of a sweet-n-low packet is how little fentanyl it takes to kill 500 people.
Social media giants are also starting to feel the heat from the border crisis. U.S. Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-Miss.) is demanding that major social media platforms stop worrying about censorship and focus on illicit drug sales to minors using their platforms.
An undercover operation proves it took only five minutes to find someone who will sell fentanyl to a child on social media.
News reports of border patrol warning the nation about a dangerous situation for the U.S. unfolding and asking for help are plentiful. Also plentiful are people claiming there is no problem at the border and who accuse some politicians of using illegal immigrants for publicity stunts to gain voter support.
So what is "really" going on at the border? Bipartisan agendas and the race to earn votes have superseded any real progress, and the immigration situation is on hold. Unfortunately, while politicians argue and smear each other in the press, Americans are dying in record numbers of overdoses, migrant children are being sold for sex, and illegal immigrants are overrunning American border towns.
At this point, the main focus is blame. Democrats blame the previous administration, and Republicans blame the current administration. What isn't being addressed by either side is a solution.
One claim remaining consistent with the current administration is that they inherited the problem at the border. While the border wasn't perfect upon being voted into office, Biden's immediate border policy changes directly affected the intensity of the border crisis today.
Finding someone to blame is a common theme from both sides of congress. For months that is where the focus has remained. Members of congress on both sides claim, "it's not my job," or "why address the issue if the votes aren't there."
Instead of using blame as a political weapon, analyzing how we got to this point while moving forward to a solution is probably better served and hopefully, both sides can agree something needs to change immediately.
Change comes from involvement, and involvement is easier than you think.
Click this link to email your senator and tell them how you feel about the immigration policies.
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