President Joe Biden’s stance on immigration and the policy decisions taken by him have had catastrophic consequences, with unprecedented numbers of migrants dying while attempting to cross the US-Mexico border illegally, according to the Washington Examiner.
More than 800 bodies may be recovered at the southern border by the end of September, unnamed senior federal law enforcement officials at Border Patrol headquarters in Washington have warned.
“It’ll likely hit over 800 for full-year 22. I thought I would never see that number,” one official wrote in an email for the outlet.
Biden’s border policies have pushed many asylum-seekers to opt for dangerous potential ports of entry, the report stated, with a source cited as saying:
“This administration does not care about dead Hispanics.”
Some 746 dead immigrants were found in Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and California between last October and 6 September, according to internal homeland security data obtained by the publication. This is up from 566 such deaths in all of last year and triple the number registered in 2020. The grim discoveries are usually made by local landowners and federal, state, and local police, with immigrants perishing from drowning, suffocation, heat exhaustion in tractor-trailers, while crossing remote areas, and in crashes resulting from vehicle pursuits.
“It is a staggering death toll, and it's a sign of how desperate people are that they are willing to take these risks,” Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, the American Immigration Council’s policy director, said.
According to one senior federal law enforcement official, Border Patrol anticipates a slight increase in people attempting to enter because of the November mid-term elections. All 435 seats in the House of Representatives as well as 35 Senate seats are up for grabs. Democrats at present have narrow majorities in both chambers of Congress.
“A potential shift in the House or Senate to Republicans” could prompt migrants to rush to the border before Congress changes hands in January 2023,” claimed one insider.
The Republicans have lambasted the Democratic 46th POTUS for his administration’s “open border policies” and the scrapping of a number of restrictive measures against illegal migrants put in place by the former president, Donald Trump. If the Republicans win, they have vowed to roll out a plan to enhance border security and reduce illegal immigration.
Although images of immigrant deaths under former president Trump stoked vocal outrage among Democrats, the outcry now from Biden's party has been conspicuously muted despite deaths exceeding numbers under Trump's presidency, the report said.
In the single deadliest smuggling event in modern US history, more than 50 immigrants were found dead inside an abandoned overheated tractor-trailer parked in San Antonio, Texas, in late May.
Wendy Young, president of immigrant advocacy group Kids in Need of Defense, cited as an example the drowning of two young children in different parts of Texas last month, as families attempted to cross terrain “between official ports of entry”.
“One more death of a child crossing the border when it can be prevented is unconscionable,” Young said, urging practical and innovative solutions.
Nine migrants drowned while attempting to swim across the Rio Grande from the northern Mexican city of Piedras Negras to Eagle Pass, Texas, in September, according to Border Patrol. Many asylum-seekers have plunged to their death while trying to climb over the 30ft border wall erected during Trump’s tenure.
The number of apprehensions at the southern border under Biden has surpassed 3.4Mln and shows no sign of declining, according to official figures.
According to the Washington Examiner, in July, US Customs and Border Protection refused to fulfill a media request and a Freedom of Information Act request for the number of migrant deaths this year. The denial was purportedly because of how difficult it is to obtain the data triggered by the introduction of a new methodology for tracking such deaths. However, the outlet pointed to the internal data it had obtained as proof that border officials had chosen deliberately not to disclose the damning figures.
‘Mixed Signals & Failed Policies’
Conservative US lawmakers have been making it clear that impeaching President Biden is one of their priorities if the GOP win back a majority in the House of Representatives in November mid-terms.
“Orderly, legal immigration is part of what makes America strong. Anarchy and open borders makes us weak. There’s nothing compassionate or humane about the border crisis that Democrats’ mixed signals and failed policies have unleashed,” Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Republican from Kentucky, said in the Senate.
In 2019, under Trump, Democrats deplored what they said was a humanitarian and security crisis at the southern border. However, under Biden, Border Patrol agents have been reportedly forced to spring into action to save the life of nearly 20,000 migrants this year.
“We’re constantly seeing children losing their life, children being abused. For us, it’s a humanitarian crisis. What are we doing for these immigrants? Why are we not focusing on illegal immigration so they don’t go through hell to get to the United States?” asked Republican Representative for Texas' 11th Congressional district, Mayra Flores.
The Biden administration has kept in place some Trump-era policies, such as Title 42, a policy implemented in March 2020 by order of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to protect public health during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Title 42 has been modified under Biden to allow unaccompanied minors and families with young children to enter the US. Back in May, the White House sought to scrap Title 42, prompting GOP-led states to sue. However, a court ruling in Louisiana blocked the Biden administration from ditching the order.
Another Trump-era policy, known as Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP), was successfully done away with by the Biden team. MPP required asylum-seekers to wait in Mexico for an immigration court to hear their case.
Republicans hope to make immigration a leading issue in the November mid-terms. Meanwhile, an NBC poll released this week found that 56 percent of respondents said they trusted Republicans to deal with border security, compared with the 20 percent who trusted the Democrats.