Fact Check 18: Despite Biden-Harris administration promises - and its Congressional testimony - America's borders are anything but "secure"
The evidence of top US government officials' betrayals of their sworn duty to secure our borders should be commonly known among the American people, 13 days before the election, but it isn't. Why?
Total: 10,825,389. To this, I’ve added the estimated 20% more of “got-aways,” meaning aliens who evaded CBP and were never interdicted. This brings the total of encounters of illegal aliens at US borders to 12,990,467 under the Biden-Harris administration.
This tracks with what is noted down-page in the USA TODAY article, here:
Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas testified in October 2023 that there were more than 600,000 gotaways in fiscal year 2023.
The numbers mesh perfectly: 20% of the CBP acknowledged 3,201,144 illegal alien encounters in FY 2023 is 640,229.
The reason is because CBP officers are so over-worked, and under-resourced, due to:
The fact that the border encounters grew by 300-700% per year, but CBP officers, and resources, grew by only a tiny fraction of that
Each migrant that is caught must be processed before being released into America with a theoretical court date; some are sick and need medical attention, transport, etc.
CBP officers have inadequate equipment to fulfill their mission; for example, according to a recent report by the Federation for American Immigration Reform, 66% of Border Patrol surveillance cameras are inoperable
This situation leaves vast swaths of the US border wide open to anyone who wants to walk right onto US soil.
As shown in the article below, “Illegal Immigration Continued at Record Levels in FY 2024…,” here:
“[the 2024 number] is “five times greater than the 646,822 such encounters in FY 2020, the last full year before the Biden-Harris administration took office.”
2017-20 numbers
As shown in the article down-page, “Biden Administration’s Mass-Parole Shell Game Continues to Incentivize a Historic Influx at Ports of Entry…”here:
“CBP recorded around 3.1 million such encounters nationwide from FY2017-2020.”
As shown in this July 2024 Newsweek article, according to the Department of Homeland Security, the total number of encounters with illegal aliens under President Trump were:
FY 2017: 526,901
FY 2018: 683,178
FY 2019: 1,148,024
FY 2020: 646,822
Total: 3,004,925
Note: I am not counting “got-aways” under Trump, because other data shows that as encounters with illegal aliens under Biden-Harris more than tripled, the administration did not triple the human and material resources to CBP. This is why the agency was wildly over-stretched, without the manpower or resources to pursue those whom they knew entered America without permission.
“Today’s release of nationwide border encounter figures during September closes the books on FY 2024, bringing the total for the year to 2,901,142. FY 2024 now ranks as the second worst year in U.S. history for illegal immigration, topped only by FY 2023.
“The small decline in encounters of illegal aliens attempting to enter the country is hardly something to celebrate. 2,901,142 encounters is still greater than the population of Chicago and five times greater than the 646,822 such encounters in FY 2020, the last full year before the Biden-Harris administration took office.
“Moreover, the overall decline in encounters, particularly along the southwest border, had more to do with policy decisions made in Mexico City than those made in Washington, D.C. During the final months of FY 2024, the outgoing administration of President Lopez-Obrador stepped up efforts to intercept illegal migrants heading to the U.S., and returned those caught in northern Mexico to the southern regions of that country.
In other words, the Biden-Harris administration essentially outsourced U.S. border security to Mexico in advance of the 2024 election – policies that can be reversed at any time that the government of Mexico chooses. Meanwhile, U.S.-bound migrants remain in Mexico in anticipation that the Mexican government will remove the band-aid once the U.S. elections are behind us.
Last Thursday, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced the designation of Lebanon for Temporary Protected Status (TPS), making nationals of Lebanon in the United States safe from deportation and eligible to work. The move, combined with the decision in July to grant Deferred Enforced Departure (DED) protections for Lebanese nationals, allows roughly 11,000 additional aliens to remain in the country until April 2026.
Data by the Congressional Research Service and the US Customs & Immigration Service
“As of June 2023, FAIR estimates that approximately 16.8 million illegal aliens reside in the United States. This is significantly higher than our January 2022 illegal alien population estimate of 15.5 million.”
The Vice-President’s and Cabinet secretaries’ oath of office
“I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter, so help me God.”
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