Back in August 2023, hundreds of foreign nationals rushed the U.S. border in separate incidents at official crossing points in Brownsville and El Paso, Texas. DHS officers put up physical barriers and stopped traffic over the Gateway International Bridge. On the Mexican side, the military intervened to stop further mass attempts by aliens to enter the U.S. illegally.
For those who have already forgotten, we very recently had hundreds of thousands of inadmissible aliens pouring over our border every month. Why did they come in the millions from 2021-2024 and only a few hundred today? Policy choices. Former President Joe Biden and his Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas were lamentably successful at creating made-up “lawful pathways” and circumventing our laws to parole or release as many aliens into our country as possible. The effects will last decades.
We saw an echo of the Biden border recently in the Spanish city of Ceuta, in North Africa. In July, more than 72,000 non-Spaniards bum-rushed the border while Morocco did little to stop them. The majority were Moroccans, who mostly went home within a few days. But 10,000 or more were from sub-Saharan Africa or claimed to be minors, or both.
SPAIN DEPLOYS MILITARY AFTER THOUSANDS OF MIGRANTS OVERWHELM BORDER ENCLAVE, AT LEAST 18 DEAD
Spain is now stuck with processing them under Europe’s insanely soft asylum policies, which will likely result in many being taken to mainland Spain. The success of even a minority of these invaders to access Europe will encourage many more to try.
President Donald Trump ended Biden’s open-borders policies. Since he took office, there have been zero “catch-and-release” cases at the border, the Department of Homeland Security says. Trump also ended Biden’s reckless and illegal mass parole programs. Some aliens still sneak in without being caught, but far fewer now that the Border Patrol has the time and manpower to look for them and the mandate to detain them.
TRUMP ADMIN MARKS 15 STRAIGHT MONTHS WITH ZERO BORDER RELEASES AS APPREHENSIONS PLUNGE 94%
Trump’s prompt action stemmed the manmade disaster that allowed up to 10 million illegal aliens into our country with no vetting and little chance of qualifying for asylum. But Trump can’t change the demand-side of the mass migration equation. The world still has plenty of poor, dysfunctional countries.
True, there have been some success stories. Elections across Latin America including Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, and Peru have replaced leftist leaders with conservative ones, which augers well for security and prosperity in our hemisphere.
TANVI RATNA: LATIN AMERICA’S RIGHT TURN IS REDRAWING THE UNITED STATES’ BACKYARD
In El Salvador, President Nayib Bukele has drastically reduced crime and improved the economy such that the country is desperate for workers. The U.S. taking out Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and replacing him with a more cooperative, if still leftist, leader should improve that country’s economy and allow millions to return home safely.
But elsewhere in Latin America, Africa and Asia, bad governments, weak economies, and high fertility continue to make people want to leave. The U.S. remains a favored destination.
So does Europe, where the native population is slowly being supplanted by mass migration from the “Global South.” This is no conspiracy theory; it’s an observable demographic phenomenon.
The U.N. High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) estimated that at least 1,200 migrants in Ceuta could be eligible for asylum in Spain. UNHCR, along with the International Organization for Migration, used millions in U.S. money to channel illegal migration from across the world via Latin America into the U.S.
MIGRANT CRISIS PUSHES ITALY TO RESTORE BORDER CHECKS WITH SPAIN, TESTING EUROPE’S OPEN-BORDER SYSTEM
Claiming asylum so they can get into Spain and the larger EU is what motivates people rushing into Ceuta, just like those who used to rush the U.S. border. They want jobs and better prospects, including generous welfare benefits. But the vast majority are not persecuted at home in the way required to qualify for asylum. They’ll admit as much themselves, at least until the asylum process begins and they have to make up a story and stick to it.
One illegal migrant to Ceuta from Chad, Mohamed Yaqoub, told an AP reporter that “The most important thing for us is to get the papers,” so that he could achieve his goal of studying in France. If he were truly seeking asylum, Yaqoub would have done so in the first safe country he reached outside Chad. He not only didn’t, he admits he won’t even stay in Spain once he gets “papers,” he’ll go to France.
Demand to migrate from the Global South to the richer countries is insatiable. But housing, healthcare and welfare benefits are limited. Many EU member countries have structural budget deficits and debt caused by their economies failing to grow while the costs of socialist healthcare and pension systems rise.
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The United States is largely in the same boat. Now, like Europe, we have evidence that the typical illegal or low-skilled legal migrant results in a net fiscal loss over his lifetime – thus not saving Social Security, but sinking it.
Let Ceuta and Brownsville, be a warning to us to never let the Biden border happen again.
