You might be interested in this piece at Atrios by Stef W. Kight outlining what has been happening at the U. S.-Mexican border:
Until this month, the record was 11,475 in May 2019. The minimum projections for each of the next six months are thousands higher than that.
- To give a sense of how out of hand the crossings are getting, the administration projected just a month ago the figure for May would be 13,000. The new estimate is 22,000 to 25,000.
- The Customs and Border Protection range for September is 22,000 to 26,000. Under any scenario, projections include a peak month that would double the record that stood until this month.
- Spokespersons for the White House and the Department of Homeland Security did not respond to requests for comment. A spokesperson for the Department of Health and Human Services referred Axios to DHS.
and she concludes:
Under current policies, the government is facing unheard of numbers of migrant kids illegally crossing the border this fiscal year — from 159,000 to 184,000.
- Even the low-end estimate is double the total number of kids who tried to cross during the crisis year of 2019. In 2014, the Obama administration struggled to care for just 69,000 kids who crossed illegally.
- The data obtained by Axios did not include projections for migrant families, but the Department of Homeland Security is expecting from 500,000 to 800,000 migrants crossing the border this fiscal year in family groups, the Washington Post reported Sunday.
- The numbers would be equal to or greater than in 2019, compounding the growing crisis.
I suppose that whether or not this constitutes a “crisis” will be debated for years to come. Something I find at the very least ironic is that many of the same people who were arguing that COVID-19 imposing a strain on resources was a crisis are insisting that the increased numbers of migrants, particularly unaccompanied children, crossing the border and straining resources is not a crisis.
I do think it’s a crisis for any number of reasons but I have thought the large number of migrants we’ve seen over the last several decades has been an increasing crisis all of that time. We already have the largest number of migrants as a percent of the population in over a century when it was deemed crisis sufficient to sharply limit immigration into the United States. More will mean an even greater crisis.
3-2-1…here comes Steve quoting stats supporting his perspective —-> there’s no difference in the border numbers being experienced by the Biden surge than there were during the Trump surge. Never mind that members of the border patrol are saying they are being overwhelmed, and their union president says the border was far safer and better managed under the Trump Administration. Nevertheless, visuals of children packed in, shoulder to shoulder, are making their way to the public, despite Biden’s attempts to close down any prying eyes as to the reality of massive amounts of overcrowding taking place on the southern border. Biden’s remedy is to build numerous facilities to shelter children, opening an arena in San Diego, busing and flying illegal migrants all over the country.
As for social distancing? Not happening. Infected people coming into the country? Definitely happening. However, we all have to wear masks, social distance, vaccinate ourselves, and color within the lines of all the mandates and laws being passed by a cognitively-declining Biden.
Crisis? What crisis?
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/biden-staffer-blocks-ted-cruz-taking-video-border-facility
steve
jan:
My own view is that I think that Trump made a number of miscalculations. He miscalculated the harm that not firing the holdout political appointees from the Obama Administration would do. He miscalculated the degree to which those in the FBI and State Department and probably other agencies would just take orders.
And I think he miscalculated in his views on the bad publicity he received for his handling of the situation on the border. I think he actually saw some of that bad publicity as furthering his tactical objectives by discouraging migrants from crossing.
Since 2019 Candidate Biden and now President Biden has been signalling that he would go easier on illegal border-crossers than Trump had been (just check the transcript of the his first appearance in a Democratic presidential debate). That’s coming back to haunt him now. It’s too early to tell whether it will prove to have been a miscalculation.
Dave,
I agree that Trump made errors, especially during the first half of his 4- year term. He was slow in appraising the personnel he kept on as well as hired on. His personality, though, was the type that found it difficult to admit such miscalculations, or to amend his behavior in order not to make them again.
Nonetheless, I believe the agreements made with Mexico, Honduras, El Salvador etc. deterred and discouraged illegals from thinking it would be easy to gain access to the US. The wall was also a stumbling block, helping the border patrol monitor and manage illegal entries. If you listen to those deployed at the border, I tend to believe their assessment, comparing and contrasting border conditions, between Trump and Biden, rather than partisan armchair bureaucrats.
Finally, the predictions being made, about the border trespass numbers to be expected in the months ahead, are staggering. And, since Biden and Harris seem unbothered by people being squished together in detention camps, and relocated everywhere across the country, in some cases laughing it off, I only see circumstances getting worse, not better, in the near and distant future.
Biden and the Brahmin, of course, don’t plan on being anywhere near those people. They’re sending them where? Up by the Canadian border.
I understand they’ve decided to let the newcomers select their own immigration hearing dates, online, at their convenience, or not, whatever.
“here comes Steve quoting stats supporting his perspective ”
As opposed to you who cite un name people who support your beliefs. Or you cite your feelings.
“I suppose that whether or not this constitutes a “crisis†”
Could be, especially if the projected numbers pan out. However, if we call it currently a crisis then we should acknowledge that we also had a crisis in 2019.
Sounds like you have decided this current increase is all due to Biden, yet we saw similar in 2014 and 2019. We have seen a steady rise in numbers since April.
Steve
You use statistics, Steve, as a “foolproof†way to substantiate your political stances. But, as most people understand, statistics can be easily manipulated and utilized in ways that distort truth and/or reality. It’s kind of like “my lying eyes†versus confirmation bias type numbers.
I don’t know whether that was addressed to me but I don’t think that the situation is completely attributable to Biden. I do think that Biden’s repeatedly signaling that he would be easier on migrants crossing the border (again, see the Democratic presidential debates) is a contributing factor.
jan- You use feelings and reports from people who agree with you, without any data or numbers to support what they believe. So sometimes the data may be wrong bout if you are going to completely and data or empirical evidence like you are doing, then we can all just believe whatever we want. I will have to say that you represent in this respect the modern conservative party and it does make it difficult to have rational discussion. I am really, really not good about feelings as the way to make decisions. It really get s bad, as in this case, we use the same data source that shows numbers are bad for Biden as we do for Trump, but you believe the ones for Biden and wont accept those for Trump.
Steve