According to President Biden, Vice President Harris, Speaker of the House Pelosi, and other ranking Democrats, The US southern border is secure. So let’s look at some of the numbers.
555,285 illegal immigrants crossed the US southern border in 2014 under Obama.
611,689 illegal immigrants crossed the US southern border in 2016 under Obama.
580,693 illegal immigrants crossed the US southern border in 2018 under Trump.
547,777 illegal immigrants crossed the US southern border in 2020 under Trump.
2,033,413 illegal immigrants crossed the US southern border in 2021 under Biden.
1,624,711 illegal immigrants crossed the US southern border as of August in 2022 under Biden (with 4 more months to go in the calendar year).
Let’s look at this another way:
During Trump’s 48 months in office 2,391,433 migrants entered the US illegally along the US/Mexico border. In Biden’s 20 months in office 3,658,124 migrants have entered the US illegally along the US/Mexico border. There was a nearly 400% increase in Illegal immigration along our southern border during Biden’s first year in office when compared to previous years, and is on track to far exceed that number in 2022 with 4 more months left in this calendar year.
Additionally, the number of migrants who died attempting to cross into the US illegally has soared since Biden became President of the United States. There were 247 deaths in fiscal 2020. That number increased to 557 in 2021 (a more than 225% increase over 2020). In 2022 that number has increased to 748 with one more month to go in the fiscal year (a more than 300% increase so far over 2020).
So what changed in 2021?
Biden and his administration is claiming the reason for the dramatic increase illegal border crossings is migrants fleeing communism, authoritarian regimes, and wars. Biden also claimes the current crisis at the border is a result of failed border policies under Trump.
However, those communist and authoritarian regimes in central and south America have been in power for years, and there have been no regime changes or new wars for some time. Also, the number of illegal border crossings rapidly increase until AFTER Trump left office in 2021. So again, what changed in 2021?
I think most likely cause is that Democrats spent 4 years claiming no immigrant is illegal, supporting open borders and a pathway to citizenship for people who enter the US illegally, and in January 2021 not only did a Democrat became President of the United States but Democrats also took control of both houses of congress. And of course, one of Biden’s first actions after becoming President was to repeal restrictions placed on illegal immigration and to cancel construction of the border wall.
How ironic is it that the Biden administration is now working to “fill in” gaps in the border wall in Arizona, claiming it will help reduce the number of deaths of migrants crossing the border illegally.