https://sputnikglobe.com/20230518/biden-admin-frets-about-optics-amid-illegal-immigrant-surge-post-title-42-1110445879.html
Biden Admin Frets About 'Optics' Amid Illegal Immigration Surge Post-Title 42
Biden Admin Frets About 'Optics' Amid Illegal Immigration Surge Post-Title 42
Sputnik International
Todd Bensmann, a senior national security fellow and author, has spent years documenting illegal immigration on the Mexican side of the border. He said the government and mainstream media have ignored the problem for far too long.
2023-05-18T22:05+0000
2023-05-18T22:05+0000
2023-05-18T23:56+0000
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The Biden White House is only worried about the "optics" of the migrant crisis on the Mexican border, a national security expert says.The regulations allowing immigrants arriving illegally by land to be deported for fear they might carry COVID-19 were dropped last week by order of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. That development has since prompted fears of an unprecedented wave of people-trafficking across the Mexico-US border.Todd Bensmann told Sputnik that the Biden administration "is letting them in and rewarding them with entry and long-term stay for their investment in smuggling fees."He said the "primary loophole" used in illegal immigration cases was the 'Flores settlement,' a 1993 Supreme Court ruling which prevents authorities holding trafficked children for more than a short period of time."It basically says we can't detain families very long," Bennsman said. "And so they figured out that they could come in and that we would release them to pursue their asylum claims in the years ahead."The expert explained that Title 42 had stopped immigrants "abusing" the political asylum system to avoid deportation.The documentary filmmaker said that the end to Title 42 saw the mainstream media finally "show up for the party" — albeit "about two-and-a-half years too late.""If I was an immigration reporter, I would be living down there and on both sides of the border," Bensmann stressed. "But that's just not the case. Occasionally they'll parachute in, but they'll never really quite explain what's going on or anything.""This time they at least covered it because they were expecting a big, ugly, terrible surge on the day after," he added. "Now that surge did not materialize. And so now everybody's running victory lap."While US authorities are trying to conceal the true scale of the crisis to avoid negative media coverage, Bensmann works on the other side of the border where he was able to film thousands of people crossing the Rio Grande river into Texas every day and bight in the run-up to the Title 42 expiry.For more insightful commentary on current affairs, check out or Sputnik Radio show The Backstory.
https://sputnikglobe.com/20230513/biden-pulling-agents-from-us-mexico-border-despite-post-title-42-migrant-influx-1110307748.html
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Biden Admin Frets About 'Optics' Amid Illegal Immigration Surge Post-Title 42
22:05 GMT 18.05.2023 (Updated: 23:56 GMT 18.05.2023) Todd Bensmann, a senior national security fellow and author, has spent years documenting illegal immigration on the Mexican side of the border. He said the government and mainstream media have ignored the problem for far too long.
The Biden White House is only worried about the "optics" of the migrant crisis on the Mexican border, a national security expert says.
The regulations allowing immigrants arriving illegally by land to be deported for fear they might carry COVID-19 were dropped last week by order of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. That development has since prompted fears of an unprecedented wave of people-trafficking across the Mexico-US border.
Todd Bensmann told
Sputnik that the Biden administration "is letting them in and rewarding them with entry and long-term stay for their investment in smuggling fees."
He said the "primary loophole" used in illegal immigration cases was the 'Flores settlement,' a 1993 Supreme Court ruling which prevents authorities holding trafficked children for more than a short period of time.
"It basically says we can't detain families very long," Bennsman said. "And so they figured out that they could come in and that we would release them to pursue their asylum claims in the years ahead."
The expert explained that Title 42 had stopped immigrants "abusing" the political asylum system to avoid deportation.
"All anybody really wanted was to just be able to claim asylum. It gets them around all the other rules and laws and then around Border Patrol and then they're in the country," Bensmann said. "There was a pause for the last couple of years in the abuse of massive systematic asylum abuse with Title 42. Now Title 42 is over and asylum is back."
The documentary filmmaker said that the end to Title 42 saw the mainstream media finally "show up for the party" — albeit "about two-and-a-half years too late."
"If I was an immigration reporter, I would be living down there and on both sides of the border," Bensmann stressed. "But that's just not the case. Occasionally they'll parachute in, but they'll never really quite explain what's going on or anything."
"This time they at least covered it because they were expecting a big, ugly, terrible surge on the day after," he added. "Now that surge did not materialize. And so now everybody's running victory lap."
While US authorities are trying to conceal the true scale of the crisis to avoid negative media coverage, Bensmann works on the other side of the border where he was able to film thousands of people crossing the Rio Grande river into Texas every day and bight in the run-up to the Title 42 expiry.
"I do my reporting on the Mexican side, so I don't have that problem. There's no Biden administration that's worried about the political optics. And there were no American reporters over there at all. So I was all alone," he said. "I've always found that Mexico was the place to report this, because the Biden administration definitely does everything it possibly can to hide the optics of huge numbers of migrants, all in a big gathering together that shows how gigantic the problem is."
For more insightful commentary on current affairs, check out or Sputnik Radio show The Backstory. 
