The full-blown humanitarian crisis on the southern border ultimately could threaten the safety and security of every single American. The Biden administration has failed to properly acknowledge the severity of the situation and seemingly is in total denial of just how dire the circumstances are.

Even more alarming, President Joe Biden has imposed a gag order on U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents, instructing the agency’s press officers to deny all ride-along requests and refer all questions—even from local reporters—to Washington for approval.

The Biden administration is trying to hide and impose censorship on the border crisis that everyone already knows is underway. In the past month alone, nearly 100,000 illegal immigrants have attempted to unlawfully enter our nation.

It’s clear that the administration’s slew of executive actions and policies have incentivized this illegal behavior, leading to an extreme uptick of criminal crossings. According to Customs and Border Protection, migrant encounters along the southern border are up 28% since January and up 173% since this time last year.

Keep in mind, these migrants aren’t adults only but also children and family units. Customs and Border Protection expects about 13,000 unaccompanied migrant children to reach the border by May and 117,000 by the end of the year. Apprehensions of family units are up 317% since last February.

Nearly one-third of migrants have been affected by human trafficking or other exploitative practices along their route. Some migrant women have shared that, as The New York Times reported, “sexual violence has become an inescapable part of the collective migrant journey.”

The rush we are seeing to cross the Rio Grande is a direct result of the Biden administration’s efforts to weaken border security, virtually eliminate enforcement of U.S. immigration laws, put a moratorium on deportations, and promise amnesty to undocumented immigrants residing in the country illegally. 

The administration also put a stop to the construction of the border wall, reinstated “catch and release,” and tied the hands of immigration enforcement officers.

The Biden administration recently awarded $86 million to cover hotel costs for migrants at the border in Texas and Arizona. These migrants are entering our country illegally, but instead of being sent back, they are greeted with hotel accommodations. That’s just plain wrong.

We also know that drug cartels actively are exploiting the administration’s dismal immigration stance to cross our southern border. Nationwide, drug seizures increased 50% in February from a month earlier.

Several known terrorists, or others reasonably suspected of terrorism, are capitalizing on this influx of migrants to fly under the radar and infiltrate our nation through our porous borders.

Without question, the Biden administration has failed to be transparent about the problem or even acknowledge that it is a crisis. Despite this, the administration deployed  the Federal Emergency Management Agency—which coordinates the response to disasters in the U.S. and is another part of the Department of Homeland Security—to assist in handling this surge in migrants. If that doesn’t constitute a crisis, what does? 

The administration’s immigration policies are in fact a disaster, and they have failed monumentally as this crisis has developed.  

It’s deeply concerning that House Democrats’ answer to this growing problem has been to pass two bills that will further incentivize and reward illegal immigration with amnesty. 

To be clear: Whether Democrats like it or not, this is a full-blown national security and humanitarian emergency.

Our country cannot afford politically motivated policies that make our borders less secure, fail to uphold the rule of law, and damage public health.

But those are exactly the kind of policies President Biden has enacted since Day One of his presidency, and they have accelerated the crisis at the southern border dangerously. We need an immigration policy that prioritizes securing the border and protecting the health and safety of Americans first.

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