Information Related to "What's Behind the Border Disaster?"
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John Moore/Staff
Enormous numbers of people around the world are experiencing poverty, persecution, crime and warfare. Many are willing to leave their homeland to find a better life in another nation -- some seeking to do so lawfully but others by illegal migration. This can profoundly change the nations being flooded with such migrants. And amid the huge influx are many entering for nefarious reasons. Even if that's a small percentage of the millions of illegal entrants, it could still mean many thousands bringing serious harm.
We certainly sympathize with true asylum seekers and even those just looking for better opportunities. But there must a be a careful, lawful process for immigration for the safety and well-being of all concerned. Non-enforcement of immigration laws as part of an effectively open-border policy promotes increased lawlessness and a real threat to national security.
The problem has reached crisis proportions -- on a massive scale of millions in the United States but also in other countries on a smaller scale. In 2022 authorities in Italy reported that more than 138,000 people entered the country illegally -- many arriving by boat from North Africa. Spain reported in 2023 that nearly 57,000 migrants unlawfully entered its territory by land and sea, marking an 82 percent year-on-year increase over the previous high recorded in 2018. Other European nations experiencing high numbers of illegal aliens in 2022 included Germany, Greece, France and Hungary.
In 2022 the consultancy firm Immigroup listed the world's top 10 destinations for unlawful immigration. The highest by far was the United States -- and this was based on figures before the huge surge of the last few years -- followed by India, Russia, the United Kingdom, Germany, Malaysia, Brazil, South Korea, the Philippines and Canada.
We'll focus here specifically on the example of the United States as the planet's topmost destination. The nation's 2,000-mile (3,200-km) southern border has often faced the challenge of unauthorized entry by foreign nationals. Government policies a few years back slowed illegal migration significantly, but this was reversed under the current administration, leading to the worst period of unlawful entry on record -- seen now by many as amounting to a foreign invasion supported by the federal government. The crisis is so severe that some states have passed laws and sent their own personnel to the border to defend themselves against this invasion.
We should consider the grave dangers here, seeking to know what's behind all this and if there is a way out of the problem.
The current situation began soon after Joe Biden took office as president in January 2021. In line with campaign promises, he immediately began reversing the enforcement measures of the former president, Donald Trump, canceling 64 border-related executive orders that had reduced illegal immigration to its lowest level in 45 years.
Besides announcing a 100-day cessation of deportations of illegal migrants and offering them work permits and several government benefits, the new administration also halted the construction of the U.S.-Mexican border wall and the "Remain in Mexico" policy -- which had required all migrants seeking asylum to wait there until they were given a hearing before a U.S. immigration judge. Moreover, the Biden administration disregarded various provisions of the legislation governing immigration policy detailed in the Immigration and Nationality Act.
As word spread around the world about Biden's promises and his direct call for migrants to surge the border, the numbers began increasing so sharply that in less than three months after taking office, his administration was thrust into a major humanitarian and political crisis. As small groups of migrants and huge caravans of thousands began arriving at various points along the border, U.S. Border Patrol agents and border cities and towns were completely overwhelmed. In fact, rather than guarding the border, officials were compelled by the new policies to spend most of their time simply processing border crossers and releasing them into the country.
In a U.S. House of Representatives Homeland Security Committee meeting on Dec. 20, 2023, Chairman Mark Green said: "Processing and releasing illegal aliens into the interior is not the job they [the border agents] signed up for and it pulls them away from their vital frontline security mission. It goes directly against their law enforcement mandate to enforce consequences against lawbreaking, not reward it."
Tragically, vulnerable people are often hurt more than helped in coming.
As massive numbers of migrants made the dangerous 3,000-mile journey across Central America and Mexico, many were reported to have been exposed to violence and death, as had happened in previous migrant caravan treks along this route. According to a 2018 report by David Sivak at checkyourfact.com, 80 percent of migrant women traveling to the U.S. border through Mexico were subjected to rape by transnational gang members, other migrants or corrupt officials.
In 2023, when Luis Miranda, a U.S. Department of Homeland Security spokesperson, was questioned about reported rapes he said, "The inhumane way smugglers abuse, extort, and perpetrate violence against migrants for profit is criminal and morally reprehensible."
Another outcome of the shift in border policy is that some parents, especially from El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras, paid smugglers to bring their minor children to the U.S.-Mexican border to escape poverty and gang violence. Sadly, many of these children were mistreated or abused, and some died on the precarious journey. Those who arrived at the border were taken into protective custody by U.S. border officials. According to a CBS News report on Oct. 14, 2022, the number of unaccompanied minor children entering the United States numbered 130,000 by the end of the 2022 fiscal year.
Two of the seven vicious Mexican drug cartels, Sinaloa and Jalisco -- that in effect control who and what crosses the U.S.-Mexican border -- took full advantage of Biden's virtual open-border policy. These criminal organizations vastly increased their wealth and power by expanding their lucrative cross-border drug and weapons smuggling operations and intensifying their human smuggling and trafficking efforts.
The drug offensive is killing in vast numbers, particularly through fentanyl.
On bringing people in, the U.S. State Department says that human smuggling "occurs when a person voluntarily enters into an agreement with a smuggler to gain illegal entry into a foreign country and is moved across an international border." And human trafficking is defined as "a crime involving the exploitation of an individual for the purposes of compelled labor or a commercial sex act through the use of force, fraud, or coercion."
Human smuggling often becomes trafficking when exorbitant fees demanded for the migrants' journey to the border leads to debt bondage. The migrants agree to work off the payment to the cartel, entrapping them in an abusive cycle of never-ending debt and forced labor, often as sex slaves, as "fees" and compounding interest penalties mount up. Migrants have been killed for not following through on paying their debts.
While migrant admittance is legally justifiable in cases of genuine need for asylum, most are coming for economic benefit. Yet they are frequently coached by immigration lawyers and others to claim asylum over "persecution" back home, obligating U.S. border agents to issue them a "notice to appear" at a future asylum hearing. Prior to that court date, which is often set years later, they are permitted (paroled) to travel and settle in the country. Many are bussed or flown by the government or other handlers to cities throughout the nation. Will these people really show up later? Records to date show that very few do.
In his 2024 State of the Union Address, Joe Biden repeated what he'd recently explained -- these court dates are intentionally set years off because if they were only a few weeks or months after arrival, the migrants, fearing they might be turned back shortly, would not risk paying all the money to cartels and going through the ordeal to come. Thus, the later court dates are meant as incentive for vast numbers to pour in!
And then there are those who may intend harm. Border agents can only check U.S. and some allies' crime and terrorism databases but can't investigate such data about migrants coming from Russia, China and other nations that may be hostile to America -- with the migrants possibly acting as foreign agents. (More on this shortly.)
A January 2024 survey by Rasmussen Reports and the National Pulse found that 65 percent of likely U.S. voters believe it is accurate to describe the current situation with migrants at the border with Mexico as an "invasion" of the country. Citizens have become increasingly alarmed that terrorists have been given the opportunity to enter the nation to do great harm -- especially in view of the vicious attacks carried out by Hamas terrorists in Israel in October 2023.
In testimony before the U.S. House's Homeland Security Committee on Oct. 31, 2023, Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Director Christopher Wray stated, "The reality is that the terrorism threat has been elevated throughout 2023, but the ongoing war in the Middle East has raised the threat of an attack against Americans in the United States to a whole other level."
He continued by saying that the attack that killed over 1,300 people in Israel "will serve as an inspiration [to potential terrorists] the likes of which we haven't seen since ISIS launched its so-called caliphate years ago."
The U.S. Border Patrol has reported a marked increase in apprehensions of individuals with matches on the FBI's "terror watch list." According to an Oct. 11, 2023 report by CBS News, "Of those processed at official ports of entry, there were 227 terror database hits with individuals processed along the southern border in fiscal year 2023."
Also, in a March 6, 2024 report, Fox News reported that the current total number of terror-watch encounters stands at 340 compared to 11 during the four years of the Trump administration. That elevated figure does not include terror suspects who may have illegally entered the country and evaded arrest -- described as "gotaways" by U.S. Customs and Border Protection. Although the agency does not release this data publicly, it is estimated that there have been 1.7 million gotaways since the beginning of the Biden administration.
Even more concerning are what are described as "special interest aliens," referring to individuals from nations that either promote terrorism, harbor terrorists or pose possible security threats to the United States. The Border Patrol encountered nearly 73,000 such migrants from October 2021 to October 2023 -- many from the Middle East. These encounters included 6,386 nationals from Afghanistan, 3,153 from Egypt, 659 from Iran, 538 from Syria, 139 from Yemen, 123 from Iraq, 164 from Lebanon, 1,613 from Pakistan, 13,624 from Uzbekistan and 30,830 from Turkey.
Furthermore, there are increasing concerns about men of military-age allowed into America from Russia, China and other nations. In 2023 more than 37,000 Chinese citizens crossed into the country, which is nearly 10 times the total in 2022 and more than double that of the entire previous decade. With the control China exercises over its people, it seems extremely unlikely that such numbers could come in large groups of their own accord.
A Pew Research Center survey conducted from January 16-21, 2024 asked specifically about the impact of the migrant influx on crime in the United States. A majority (57 percent) responded that the large number of migrants seeking to enter the country could lead to more crime.
Even as many migrants want to come to the United States for a chance at a better life, it's clear that criminals are also arriving. As before, even if this is a relatively small percentage, the huge number of people coming in unvetted would make this a significant number. For example, members of the violent La Mara Salvatrucha (MS13) gang and those from other criminal gangs have exploited the open border to enter the country.
Some recent news stories in this regard have received wide attention. On Jan. 31, 2024, seven illegal aliens took part in a beating attack on two New York City police officers in Times Square. On Feb. 22, the brutal murder of Laken Riley, a 22-year-old female nursing student in Athens, Georgia was allegedly perpetrated by a Venezuelan illegal immigrant who had apparently been released into the United States in 2022. Moreover, on Feb. 27 the state of Louisiana reported that an illegal alien from Honduras had been arrested for the rape of a 14-year-old girl at knifepoint and for the repeated stabbing of a man during a robbery.
Again, it's important to be sympathetic to people seeking a better life for themselves and their families. But this certainly must not mean condoning actions that ignore or abrogate lawful and commonsense safeguards. Granting unrestricted access to enter the United States or any country is profoundly unwise and destructive -- and uncompassionate to both citizens and migrants. Any action that causes harm to many and subverts morality is ungodly, reprehensible and shameful.
Why is this happening? We can't see all the reasons. A lot can be said regarding the desire of some to gain more political power through changed constituencies, of causing economic harm and increased unease to expand government dependence, of corporate interests looking for cheap labor, and of foreign and globalist interests that would like to see a weakened country -- to bring greater parity among the nations. Such elements exist in other countries as well.
But when we see such widespread harm from the nation's leadership, we should recognize that the problems are fundamentally spiritual. The Bible explains that there are dark forces stirring up people to betray and hate one another -- led by Satan, the ruler of this world (see John 14:30).
But something else is also happening. God foretold that nationwide obedience to Him would bring national blessings, while widespread disobedience would bring national curses (see Leviticus 26 and Deuteronomy 28). And frankly that's where we are. God has given us over to corrupt and confounded leaders. He foretold, "The Lord will strike you with madness and blindness and confusion of heart" (verse 28). And He also warned, "The alien who is among you shall rise higher and higher above you, and you shall come down lower and lower" (verse 43).
God also said, "I will even appoint terror over you . . . Those who hate you shall reign over you" (Leviticus 26:16-17). The people's own leaders have put them at risk of far greater infiltration by terrorists than what the world saw on 9/11. This is deadly serious.
There have been campaign promises from those opposed to current policies to try to turn things around, including through deporting many illegal immigrants -- although that would be massively difficult. How do you track down literally millions who've been wrongly admitted in? And would they all leave willingly? Where would they go? There are no good answers, and the only sure thing is that even harder times are coming.
The only real solution to such problems is a return to God and heartfelt plea for His forgiveness and deliverance. Thankfully, every person can look forward to a magnificent coming time when the ultimate solution to all the troubles of humankind will finally take place -- at the return of Jesus Christ. Then all will learn to live in peace with each other, and no one will need to flee their home country. Indeed, all will be fully satisfied with no fear (Micah 4:4). Let us eagerly anticipate and spiritually prepare for that coming marvelous future age!
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