As Mark Meckler opined in a recent op-ed, Joe Biden’s border crisis may soon worsen dramatically. This week—when Title 42, a Trump-era border policy that makes removing illegal aliens easier, expires—a new surge of immigration is expected. Border Patrol agents have cautioned that they are unprepared for the storm that is to come.And now, after years of feigning disgust at the GOP’s alleged “xenophobia,” the media has finally confessed that we may be in trouble.During the Trump years, the media and Democratic Party chided Republicans for their obsession with securing the U.S./Mexico border. Since Biden took office, they have dismissed concerns over a “crisis” as nothing more than a conservative-concocted, anti-Biden bogeyman. But abruptly, their tune has changed.Even as immigration enforcement braces for perhaps the most dramatic impact yet, The New York Times has quietly revealed that a new “surge” is already building in Central America. “The surge of migrants gathering at the U.S.-Mexico border underscores a point that Democratic Party politicians often try to play down: U.S. border policy has a big effect on how many people try to enter the country illegally,” admits the Time’s senior writer, David Leonhardt. SEE ALSO: Biden’s Border Crisis is about to get even worse “In recent weeks, word has spread in Latin America that entering the U.S. is about to become easier. Smugglers have told potential migrants that the coming period will be a good time to attempt a border crossing, President Andrés Manuel López Obrador of Mexico said last week. U.S. officials believe that the number of illegal crossings per day, which has recently hovered around 7,500, could soon rise above 12,000, according to my colleague Eileen Sullivan.”To be clear, this is exactly what Mark Meckler predicted.Leonhardt goes on to claim that “a porous border creates its own humanitarian problems.” Such an admission would have been unimaginable not two years ago. Leonhardt also points to data from U.S. Customs and Border Protection that shows how apprehensions at the border have skyrocketed since Biden took office. Shockingly, monthly apprehensions under Biden have been lower than the peak under Trump in only two months, Biden’s first two. Trump’s average was under 50,000 per month. In contrast, Biden, barring his first 60 days in office, has never been under 150,000.Unquestionably, allegations of a border crisis are not merely trumped-up, anti-Democrat talking points. The numbers prove the situation really is as bad as Republicans have been saying. Maybe even worse.The Times reports that, in just over three years, Title 42 has prevented the entry of “hundreds of thousands of migrants” into the United States. For Biden to remove this effective enforcement mechanism seems grossly irresponsible considering how unmanageable the crisis already is. It’s almost as if he wants the quandary to worsen. SEE ALSO: Secular liberalism has a serious kids problem Notably, in his article, David Leonhardt does not quite take the conservative stance on immigration. In fact, he accuses Republicans of denigrating foreigners and employing “racist language.” What he fails to explain, however, is that securing our border is actually in the best interest not just of Americans—who U.S. politicians should be loyal to first anyway—but to immigrants as well.Shocking numbers suggest that 60% of unaccompanied alien children are exploited through child pornography and drug trafficking by cartels. Migrant women often “pay” to cross by being raped. Even the Time’s own reporters have uncovered massive amounts of sexual abuse in conjunction to border-crossing. The newspaper called it a “hidden nightmare.” “They raped us so many times they didn’t see us as human beings anymore,” said one migrant when interviewed.Americans are encouraging and complicit in these horrific practices by keeping cartel routes into our country open. We ought to be ashamed. Allowing such abuse and violence is—and the media knows it—far worse than the alleged “bigotry” of pointing it out.When Trump accused Mexico of sending criminals and rapists into America, the media knocked him for “racism.” Sadly, they seem much more concerned about his rhetoric than about the humanitarian crimes he was sounding the alarm about.It is not demeaning or cruel to observe statistics and facts about the crisis at our border. Brushing aside those facts and sanctioning the crisis to continue, on the other hand, is cruel.And that is exactly what Biden has done.Whatever paltry steps he takes at this point to compensate for his failures are insulting and inadequate. He must completely alter course and apologize. The American people ought not settle for anything less.Jakob Fay is a staff writer for the Convention of States Project, a project of Citizens for Self-Governance.
