From The Center Square

By Bethany Blankley

“It doesn’t end catch and release; it doesn’t end the unlawful use of parole; it doesn’t increase interior enforcement; it doesn’t end the significant loopholes being exploited by the cartels, and it doesn’t provide additional resources to U.S. Customs and Border Protection to secure, defend and protect our nation’s borders.”

Former Border security leaders serving under multiple presidents and whose careers span decades in law enforcement say President Joe Biden’s “border security” announcement Tuesday won’t secure the border but instead will facilitate more illegal immigration, bringing in another two million people into the country illegally a year.

“The border will never be ‘shut down’ under this executive action but rather serve to legalize an unjustified level of open borders that will further perpetuate the chaos and lawlessness we’ve experienced during the entirety of the Biden Administration,” former U.S. Border Patrol Chief Mark Morgan told The Center Square. “The proposed action will, at a minimum, allow more than one million illegal aliens to be released into the county annually, along with another one million inadmissible aliens being allowed to fly into interior airports within the U.S.,” referring to the CBP One app that allows migrants to apply for entry remotely.

Biden said that through his executive action, “Migrants will be restricted from receiving asylum unless they seek it through an established lawful process, making an appointment through a port of entry,” he said, referring to the CBP One app.

Multiple attorneys general have sued to stop the app from being used, arguing it bypasses laws established by Congress and creates an “illegal visa” program.

The president’s executive action doesn’t secure the border in any way, Morgan said. “It doesn’t end catch and release; it doesn’t end the unlawful use of parole; it doesn’t increase interior enforcement; it doesn’t end the significant loopholes being exploited by the cartels, and it doesn’t provide additional resources to U.S. Customs and Border Protection to secure, defend and protect our nation’s borders.”

Morgan has been sounding the alarm about known or suspected terrorists (KSTs) coming through the southwest and northern borders, something Biden’s executive action doesn’t address.

Biden’s action applies only to the southwest border, not the northern border, which is experiencing record illegal entries and the greatest number of KSTs being apprehended in the country, The Center Square reported.

Asylum restrictions kick in when “high levels of encounters at the Southern Border exceed our ability to deliver timely consequences,” Biden’s plan states.

The number of KSTs apprehended at the northern border continue to outpace those apprehended at the southwest border and record numbers of illegal border crossers continue to be reported entering the northern border, The Center Square reported.

“Cartels are expanding their operations, flying people into Canada, which doesn’t require a visa, presenting an opportunity for terrorist watch-listed individuals to exploit. It’s much easier to get to Canada to come across,” Morgan told The Center Square. “Data from 39 months shows terrorist watch-listed individuals are coming here every day and they aren’t stopping.”

Tom Homan, acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement in the Trump administration, asked why the president was taking any action after he has said for years the border is secure.

“Why is he taking any action?” he told The Center Square. “He and the DHS Secretary [Alejandro Mayorkas] have claimed for three years the border is secure.”

Mayorkas repeatedly testified before Congress that his agency had operational control and the border was secure, claims for which he was impeached in February.

Homan said if Biden really wanted to be reelected as president and respond to the outrage Americans are expressing about Biden’s border policies, he would close the border and “end this action.”

But the president and his administration, “they want open borders,” he said, reiterating what he’s said before: President Biden is the only president in U.S. history to “unsecure the border on purpose. … and has created the greatest national security crisis since 9/11.”

The record number of KSTs coming through the border, cartel and gang crime flooding U.S. cities, “this is all by design,” Homan said. “This administration isn’t fooling anyone. Everyone on the Hill knows it but the Democrats play along with the lie. This is a shameful political move just before an election.”

Former U.S. Border Patrol Chief Rodney Scott also took issue with a claim that Biden’s plan reportedly limits illegal entries to 2,500 a day, calling it “political theater.”

“Immigration policies that allow the current lawlessness to continue are not going to discourage foreign nationals from attempting to illegally enter our country,” Scott said. “If we cannot control who and what enters our national home, any sense of safety is a façade.”

The Biden plan’s restrictions have exceptions as the daily limits in the Senate bill did. The Senate bill, which Biden claimed was the strongest in the country, failed to get a hearing in the Senate and went nowhere. Exceptions to immigration limits included families and unaccompanied minors who are not Canadian or Mexican citizens, meaning people from all over the world would be processed for entry, which is current policy, The Center Square reported.

“Anyone being remotely intellectually honest knows that, five months before the election, this is not a serious and meaningful action being taken by the president to secure our borders,” Morgan said. “It’s a political stunt.”