Democrats Declare Mission Accomplished on the Open Border

The Biden administration’s border policies over the last year and a half have led to a near complete collapse of security and control at the southern border. The administration has still not accepted the basic reality of the situation or its own role in causing the crisis. In an interview on Meet the Press last week, Vice President Kamala Harris made the peculiar assertion that the southern border of the United States is “secure.”

A border that was crossed illegally 3.6 million times in the past 19 months can be described in many ways, but secure is not one of them. In fact, the border was far more secure in the 19 months before the Biden administration took charge, when there were about one quarter as many crossings. In testimony before the Judiciary Committee last month, FBI Director Christopher Wray refused to say the border was secure. He said instead: “I think the border presents significant security issues. There’s a wide array of criminal threats that we encounter down at the border.” Crossing the border is also dangerous for the people being trafficked. A record 748 people have died trying to cross the border in the past year.

States on the border with Mexico have been overwhelmed. In some cases, people released by the Biden administration were offered transportation to other locations that claim to welcome illegal immigrants with open arms. The reaction from these places has been hypocritical. Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot accused Texas of creating a “crisis” by sending immigrants to her city, and Senator Dick Durbin said it was “cruel and inhumane.” None of the Democrats from Chicago or other cities where migrants have been relocated, including New York and Washington, D.C., have acknowledged that until Democrats focus on effective policies and enforce the law, the border will not be secure.