Repeatedly, we have been told that the U.S. Southern Border with Mexico is “open.” And it’s not just Americans who believe this myth. In fact, one of the factors that’s propelling migration to America is this disinformation, spread through Mexico all the way to Central America.
If we really want to reduce mass migration, the news must tell the truth about what’s happening at the border, and what our policy really is.
“The Biden administration repeatedly contends that the border isn’t open, despite the record numbers of aliens encountered by CBP last month alone,” writes Andrew Arthur. “[But according] to the most recent Harvard/Harris poll, a solid majority of whom think that the southern border is open, that it’s open because the president isn’t enforcing the immigration laws, and that immigration is a major issue for the country. That poll was conducted online for the Center for American Political Studies at Harvard University by the Harris Poll and Harris X.”
It’s interesting that the article states a record number of migrants were encountered by the CBP (U.S. Customs and Border Protection). If we had an open border, we wouldn’t have a record number of encounters… or even a CBP for that matter. This indicates that news reports, more than evidence, are driving this perception.
David Bier with the conservative Cato Institute writes:
“Practically since his first week in office, President Joe Biden has faced repeated criticisms from Republicans and some Democrats that his border policy amounts to “open borders.” This criticism is not simply inaccurate: it is unhinged from reality in a way that distinguishes itself from normal political hyperbole. Indeed, U.S. immigration policy is effectively closed borders, and Biden’s immigration policies and goals are largely the same as those of President Donald Trump.”
Bier adds that “President Biden has not suddenly ended America’s immigration prohibition… Instead, he has far more vigorously enforced immigration prohibition than the law requires… Biden is on pace to admit the fewest refugees in the history of the U.S. refugee program, fewer than 10,000.”
The left-leaning publication The Nation criticized President Biden’s spending on the border, for being too much. “It neither is, nor ever was, an “open” one in the Biden years, nor does the president faintly have an open-border policy, though prepare yourself to hear otherwise — over and over again in Trumpublican campaign ads next year. They’ll repeat what party officials are already saying all too repetitively: that “President Biden’s radical open borders policies” have created “the worst border crisis in American history.”
(While those are the exact words of House Oversight Committee chair James Comer, similar sentiments are already being offered by countless members of the GOP.)
The Nation points out that the Biden Administration spending for 2021- 2023 on CBP and ICE comes to $23.5 billion, more than Trump spent on the border ($20.5 billion) in four years and more than both budgets for 1975-1997, which comes to a billion a year for 22 years according to the author of the article, Todd Miller.
So what’s driving the migration surge at the border? According to Alfredo Corchado with the Dallas Morning News, it’s propaganda. “Disinformation about ‘open border’ policies is helping spur a massive wave of Central American migrants to take the perilous journey north to the U.S.-Mexico border, according to a poll by America’s Voice, a national advocacy group pushing immigration reform. The poll, obtained by the Dallas Morning News, indicates many Central American residents are encouraged to travel up to the U.S.- Mexico border based on false narratives.”
Evidence shows that anti-Biden propaganda about open borders, reaching well south of the border, is fueling the migration surge. And now we hear that bipartisan attempts to beef up border security are being undermined by some conservatives because of election year politics.
Now you know what’s really responsible for the border crisis.
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