A massive migrant caravan is heading toward the United States’ southern border which has been left wide open thanks to Joe Biden’s weakened border policies.
Thousands of migrants are marching 2,500 miles on foot, pushing through Mexican police blockades, determined to seek entry into the U.S. by any means necessary. The caravan, which was reportedly organized with a QR code sign-up, started in southern Mexico and consists of Central Americans, South Americans, and Haitians, according to Fox News correspondent Griff Jenkins.
Over the past year, the United States has hit an all-time high of illegal immigrant encounters at the southern border. U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has reported that a record 1.7 million migrants were caught illegally crossing the border in 2021.
In contrast, when President Trump was in the White House, only 400,000 migrant arrests were made in 2020, thanks to strong immigration policies like the Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP), better known as the “Remain in Mexico” policy. The Biden administration terminated the Remain in Mexico policy in June 2021, only to announce in October that they would be reimplementing it in November, following a federal court ruling. After the initial termination of the MPP, illegal immigration sharply spiked in July, peaking at 200,000 migrant encounters in just one month.
President Trump commented on the incoming caravan at the southern border in a statement: “The largest caravan in history is coming towards us, and we are totally unprepared and doing nothing about it. Complete the wall and get tough. Our Country is being systematically destroyed before our very eyes!”
Construction of the southern border wall was a key component of Trump’s administration. In 2019, President Trump declared a security and humanitarian crisis at the border, funneling billions of dollars of military funding into the project. However, environmentalist groups like the ACLU and the Sierra Club challenged the construction of the wall in court and requested an emergency injunction, tying the operation up in court for the last two years. When Biden took office, he immediately halted all construction on the border wall in January.
“The first thing that should be done,” President Trump remarked in a second statement commenting on the border crisis, “and it can be done quickly, is FINISH THE WALL. A deal must be made with Mexico, where Mexico serves as a 2,000-mile barrier, not a launching pad for the illegals that are coming in…How stupid our Country has become, so sad to watch when just 10 months ago we had none of these problems, and none either with bad economy, inflation, fuel prices going through the roof, and so much else.”
According to the CBP, large numbers of migrants have been expelled back to Mexico under Title 42, a Trump-era immigration policy which allows migrants to be immediately returned to their place of origin, without an opportunity to apply for asylum in the U.S. However, the CBP also noted that this high expulsion rate has served as a mechanism to encourage multiple crossing attempts, spiking the number of migrant encounters even higher.
This week, the Texas National Guard and Department of Public Safety (DPS) were deployed along the Rio Grande beside the international bridge in anticipation of the thousands of unvetted migrants attempting to flood through the open borders.
Gov. Greg Abbott, R-Texas, stated on an interview with Newsmax anchor Eric Bolling that the National Guard is barricading the border. “They’re laying miles of razor wire upon razor wire,” he added. “This afternoon, they will be dropping down some of these large containers that you see on 18 wheelers, the same type of containers that you see on the ships, to blockade the border. We are identifying the most likely locations where people may be coming across the border and doing everything possible to secure those areas.”
Unfortunately, the migrant invasion occurring at the border is receiving little to no serious intervention from the federal level. Biden and his administration seem intent on ignoring the crisis and leaving border states to deal with the issue on their own.
“Our country is now a laughingstock all over the world!” Trump concluded in his statement. In light of the thousands of unvetted and unchecked illegals elbowing their way into the U.S. on the taxpayers’ dime, it certainly seems like Trump is right.
