The Biden Administration’s complete neglect of our southern border over its first two years has set the stage for a true catastrophe in its third.  This Administration has abdicated its duty to uphold the laws of our country, has made life more difficult and expensive for every American, and has allowed dangerous substances and criminals to be easily trafficked across our border every day.

Let’s start with the numbers.  Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) data indicate that roughly 6 million immigrants – the sum of 5.5 million reported “apprehensions” with about a million estimated “gotaways” – have crossed our border with Mexico since Joe Biden took office.  That number is staggering.  6 million.  That’s more than double the population of my home state of Kansas.  Only one city in the entire United States – New York City – has a population greater than the number of illegal immigrants who have entered our country in the past two years.

While many progressives, and even some on the right, like to claim that illegal immigration does not have serious economic consequences for Americans, this couldn’t be further from the truth.  The massive influx of illegal immigrants in the past two years has strained the resources of local jurisdictions across America – especially those at the southern border.  This fact was even recognized in Biden’s FY 2023 FEMA budget request.  It’s why the massive spending bill recently passed by Congress and signed by Biden includes nearly $1 billion just to house, feed, and shelter illegal immigrants.  That’s a serious cost to the American taxpayer.

But a massive influx of illegal immigrants isn’t the only cost that Americans must pay due to the Biden Administration’s gross negligence: Record amounts of lethal fentanyl are also crossing our border every day.  In 2022 alone, the DEA seized 379 million lethal doses of fentanyl, enough to kill every American.  An optimist would say this means we should commend law enforcement’s success; a realist understands this only means far more fentanyl is coming into America than ever before, the majority of which comes across at our southern border.  And the consequences go beyond the rising death toll related to fentanyl overdoses, which claimed the lives of over 70,000 Americans in 2021 alone.  Synthetic opioids and other fentanyl-related drug use are clear drivers of the homelessness crisis hitting cities across America.  The Biden Administration loves to talk about “root causes” in order to avoid accountability at the border, but it refuses to acknowledge that our open southern border is a root cause of both the opioid epidemic and the homelessness crisis.

The immigration disaster is set to get far, far worse in the year ahead, as President Biden continues his efforts to repeal Title 42, a key immigration policy of the Trump Administration.  The Department of Homeland Security has already admitted that if Title 42 is repealed, the number of migrants crossing into our country each day is likely to double or even triple, to the point where between 9,000 and 14,000 migrants are entering our country each day.  For context, in 2019, Obama’s former DHS Secretary Jeh Johnson affirmed that even the entry of 1,000 illegal immigrants in a single day “overwhelms the system.”  Absent Title 42, an undermanned and overwhelmed border will result in more illegal immigrants, more drugs, and more criminals coming into our country. The American people are going to pay the price for this.

The problem is far deeper than Title 42, though.  The Biden Administration’s attitude toward the border is a combination of absurd progressive fantasy and rank political cowardice.  Our country’s leadership is either captured by radical leftists who don’t even believe in the concept of national borders, or it is petrified that it might upset its progressive base by doing what needs to be done on our southern border to serve all Americans.  What needs to be done? Exactly what we did in the Trump Administration: actual enforcement of the Remain in Mexico policy, which spelled out that if any immigrant wished to claim asylum in the United States, they could not already be here illegally.  This simple agreement, combined with our construction of the border wall and Title 42, helped get illegal immigration back under control.

The Biden Administration has abandoned these policies. It first tried to repeal our Remain in Mexico agreement, then resorted to simply not enforcing it when the courts reversed the order.  It has tried, repeatedly, to repeal Title 42.  And as for the border wall, Biden vowed on the campaign trail that he would “not build another foot” of it. 

We can’t allow Biden’s open-border ideology to destroy this country.  House Republicans should hold the Biden Administration accountable for its failure to do so.

HD Editor’s Note: Why Is This News Biblically Relevant?

Jesus stated in Matthew 24:12 that in the time prior to His return lawlessness/iniquity would “abound” in the world. The word “iniquity” in this verse comes from the Greek word “anomia,” which carries an intriguing meaning in light of the lawlessness we are witnessing today. “Anomia” means to be without law. More specifically, to be in a state in which laws exist but are flagrantly violated.

The Biden Administration’s complete neglect of our southern border over its first two years has set the stage for a true catastrophe in its third.  This Administration has abdicated its duty to uphold the laws of our country, has made life more difficult and expensive for every American, and has allowed dangerous substances and criminals to be easily trafficked across our border every day.

Let’s start with the numbers.  Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) data indicate that roughly 6 million immigrants – the sum of 5.5 million reported “apprehensions” with about a million estimated “gotaways” – have crossed our border with Mexico since Joe Biden took office.  That number is staggering.  6 million.  That’s more than double the population of my home state of Kansas.  Only one city in the entire United States – New York City – has a population greater than the number of illegal immigrants who have entered our country in the past two years.

While many progressives, and even some on the right, like to claim that illegal immigration does not have serious economic consequences for Americans, this couldn’t be further from the truth.  The massive influx of illegal immigrants in the past two years has strained the resources of local jurisdictions across America – especially those at the southern border.  This fact was even recognized in Biden’s FY 2023 FEMA budget request.  It’s why the massive spending bill recently passed by Congress and signed by Biden includes nearly $1 billion just to house, feed, and shelter illegal immigrants.  That’s a serious cost to the American taxpayer.

But a massive influx of illegal immigrants isn’t the only cost that Americans must pay due to the Biden Administration’s gross negligence: Record amounts of lethal fentanyl are also crossing our border every day.  In 2022 alone, the DEA seized 379 million lethal doses of fentanyl, enough to kill every American.  An optimist would say this means we should commend law enforcement’s success; a realist understands this only means far more fentanyl is coming into America than ever before, the majority of which comes across at our southern border.  And the consequences go beyond the rising death toll related to fentanyl overdoses, which claimed the lives of over 70,000 Americans in 2021 alone.  Synthetic opioids and other fentanyl-related drug use are clear drivers of the homelessness crisis hitting cities across America.  The Biden Administration loves to talk about “root causes” in order to avoid accountability at the border, but it refuses to acknowledge that our open southern border is a root cause of both the opioid epidemic and the homelessness crisis.

The immigration disaster is set to get far, far worse in the year ahead, as President Biden continues his efforts to repeal Title 42, a key immigration policy of the Trump Administration.  The Department of Homeland Security has already admitted that if Title 42 is repealed, the number of migrants crossing into our country each day is likely to double or even triple, to the point where between 9,000 and 14,000 migrants are entering our country each day.  For context, in 2019, Obama’s former DHS Secretary Jeh Johnson affirmed that even the entry of 1,000 illegal immigrants in a single day “overwhelms the system.”  Absent Title 42, an undermanned and overwhelmed border will result in more illegal immigrants, more drugs, and more criminals coming into our country. The American people are going to pay the price for this.

The problem is far deeper than Title 42, though.  The Biden Administration’s attitude toward the border is a combination of absurd progressive fantasy and rank political cowardice.  Our country’s leadership is either captured by radical leftists who don’t even believe in the concept of national borders, or it is petrified that it might upset its progressive base by doing what needs to be done on our southern border to serve all Americans.  What needs to be done? Exactly what we did in the Trump Administration: actual enforcement of the Remain in Mexico policy, which spelled out that if any immigrant wished to claim asylum in the United States, they could not already be here illegally.  This simple agreement, combined with our construction of the border wall and Title 42, helped get illegal immigration back under control.

The Biden Administration has abandoned these policies. It first tried to repeal our Remain in Mexico agreement, then resorted to simply not enforcing it when the courts reversed the order.  It has tried, repeatedly, to repeal Title 42.  And as for the border wall, Biden vowed on the campaign trail that he would “not build another foot” of it. 

We can’t allow Biden’s open-border ideology to destroy this country.  House Republicans should hold the Biden Administration accountable for its failure to do so.

HD Editor’s Note: Why Is This News Biblically Relevant?

Jesus stated in Matthew 24:12 that in the time prior to His return lawlessness/iniquity would “abound” in the world. The word “iniquity” in this verse comes from the Greek word “anomia,” which carries an intriguing meaning in light of the lawlessness we are witnessing today. “Anomia” means to be without law. More specifically, to be in a state in which laws exist but are flagrantly violated.