Congress ignores the calamity at the border

The U.S. is being invaded while Congress, with a few brave exceptions, argues about fraud in past political campaigns, does nothing to stop the thousands of uninspected migrants pouring into the country, and denies our Border Protection agents the resources needed to control this flood of people.

Congress has the power to stop massive illegal immigration. Oregon’s Congressional delegation isn’t helping.  Note that in its records of Congressional votes on immigration issues in the current session, NumbersUSA rates the entire Oregon Congressional delegation F-

Read excerpts below from a detailed account that gives figures on the scope of the current problem and spotlights Congressional failure to protect the sovereignty and safety of this country:

McAleenan Details the Scope of the Disaster at the Border

By Andrew R. Arthur, Center for Immigration Studies, June 1, 2019

Excerpts only.  Read the full article here.

Acting Secretary of Homeland Security Kevin McAleenan and acting White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney held a phone briefing on Thursday with members of the press. It revealed, in shocking detail, the scope and the effects of the disaster that is unfolding along the U.S.-Mexico border. Among the points therein:

"Over the past 21 days, an average of over 4,500 people have crossed our border illegally or arrived at ports of entry without documents. In May of 2017, that number was less than 700 a day. The month of May is on pace to be the highest month in crossings in over 12 years and will significantly surpass the record 109,000 in April."

"U.S. immigration authorities now have over 80,000 people in custody, a record level that is beyond sustainable capacity with current resources. Over 7,500 single adults are in custody at the border and Immigration and Customs Enforcement is holding over 50,000."

"Over 2,350 unaccompanied children – the highest level ever – are currently in custody waiting for days for placements in border stations that cannot provide appropriate conditions for them because Health and Human Services is out of bed space and Congress has failed to act on the administration's emergency supplemental request for more than four weeks."

… More than 75,000 families have already transited through Mexico to the Southwest border this month alone.

More than 4,000 foreign nationals appeared at the border this year with children that they fraudulently claimed were their own, a number that is increasing.

"At any given moment, up to 100,000 migrants are transiting Mexico on their way to the U.S. border."

These are massive numbers, and require context. The flow of aliens twelve years ago consisted primarily of single adult Mexican males, who could be processed by the U.S. Border Patrol (USBP) quickly and returned to Mexico with little or no expense. The statistics above demonstrate that the current flow consists primarily of family units (FMUs), largely from Central America, who require significant humanitarian assistance and take almost ten times as long for USBP to process (for reasons I explained in a February 2019 post).  …

Ultimately, … the responsibility for stopping this disaster is with Congress, as McAleenan alluded to: "We've also asked Congress to close the gaps in our laws that incentivize this unlawful flow." Incentivize? "Precipitated" would be the more accurate term.

Congress has the power to provide the resources to handle the current flow, and to fix the loopholes that these aliens are exploiting to limit that flow in the future. Don't hold your breath waiting, however. Congressional Democrats appear to be quite comfortable with this wave and the tragedy that it brings with it, and congressional Republicans failed to act when it was apparent that this wave was building in the last Congress. …

Read the full article here.