Here at usagovpolicy.com, we have periodically discussed the crisis at the Southern Border of the United States. In August, we noted that “for the first 6 months of this year, there have been 1,227,171 border crossers encountered by the Border Patrol.” Since then, according to the US Customs and Border Protection Agency, there have been 200,162 “Southwest Land Border Encounters” in July; 204,087 in August; 227,547 in September; 164,837 in October; and as of this writing, prior to Thanksgiving, 2022, there have been 174,845 illegal aliens encountered at the Southern Border in November. This is 971,478 people who have entered our country in the last 5 months. If we add these to the 1,227,171 who crossed our border illegally in the first 6 months of the year, 2,198,649 illegal aliens have been encountered at the US Southern Border in 2022 alone.
Then there are the numbers for 2021. According to US Customs and Border Protection, last year a total of 1,734,686 illegal border crossers were encountered. If we add those to the number who have crossed in 2022 to date, we have had a total of 3,933,335 illegal aliens enter our country in the first two years of the Biden Administration.
This represents one of the largest invasions in recent history. The Allied invasion of Normandy on June 6, 1944 numbered approximately 160,000 troops, less than the total number of border crossers this past October, however within a month, 1,100,000 troops were landed – which is still less than the total number of illegal immigrants who have crossed our Southern Border in 2022.
When Napoleon invaded Russia in 1812, he used approximately 650,000 troops, which represents less than any average 3 months of border crossers in 2022.
In fact, the invasion of our Southern Border in the past two years is larger than Operation Barbarossa in 1941, when Hitler used 3 million troops for his invasion of Russia.
According to the Migration Policy Institute, as of 2019 there were approximately 11 million illegal aliens present in the United States. If we accept that number as arguably accurate, this means that as of the end of 2022, there are now approximately 15 million illegals within our borders. More than the populations of New York City (8,622,357) and Los Angeles (4,085,014) COMBINED.
Stunning, isn’t it? Isn’t there some one in charge of some agency of the federal government who is responsible for securing our Southern Border?
There is. His name is Alejandro Mayorkas – and he believes he is doing a fantastic job.
In November of this year, “(w)hen asked point blank by Republican Rep. Dan Bishop if he thinks the border is secure, Mayorkas said he thinks it is. ‘Yes, and we are working day in and day out to enhance its security, congressman,’ Mayorkas responded.” / This has been the position of the Secretary for Homeland Security all along. In a statement in March of 2021, Mayorkas said “(t)he situation at the southwest border is difficult. We are working around the clock to manage it and we will continue to do so. That is our job. We are making progress and we are executing on our plan. It will take time and we will not waver in our commitment to succeed.”
“Making progress?” “Executing our plan?” “Commitment to succeed?” It is baffling to understand how almost 4 million border crashers in two years is “managing” a situation that is “difficult” – unless, of course, the plan all along has been to allow as many illegal aliens through our Southern Border as possible. If that is the plan, then Mayorkas is clearly making progress, and succeeding wildly.
Support for this view can be found in the actions of the Biden Administration and Democrats in Congress. In February of 2021, President Biden issued an Executive Order “on Restoring Faith in Our Legal Immigration Systems and Strengthening Integration and Inclusion Efforts for New Americans,” in which he established the following policy: “Consistent with our character as a Nation of opportunity and of welcome, it is essential to ensure that our laws and policies encourage full participation by immigrants, including refugees, in our civic life…that the Federal Government eliminates sources of fear and other barriers that prevent immigrants from accessing government services available to them..(t)he Federal Government should develop welcoming strategies that promote integration, inclusion, and citizenship, and it should embrace the full participation of the newest Americans in our democracy.”
Secretary Mayorkas is therefore following the policy established by his boss, President Biden. He is actually doing the job that is expected of him.
In his March 2021 statement, Secretary Mayorkas did not talk about efforts at interdiction at the Southern Border. Instead, he addressed the extensive efforts his staff has made in establishing an “additional facility in Donna, Texas to process unaccompanied children and families. We deployed additional personnel to provide oversight, care, and transportation assistance for unaccompanied minors pending transfer to HHS custody… We are (establishing) additional facilities in Texas and Arizona to shelter unaccompanied children and families…We are restarting and expanding the Central American Minors program. It creates a lawful pathway for children to come to the United States without having to take the dangerous journey. Under this expansion, children will be processed in their home countries and brought to the United States in a safe and orderly way…We are creating joint processing centers so that children can be placed in HHS care immediately after Border Patrol encounters them. We are also identifying and equipping additional facilities for HHS to shelter unaccompanied children until they are placed with family or sponsors.”
Mayorkas adds that “President Biden laid out a vision of a ‘multi-pronged approach toward managing migration throughout North and Central America that reflects the Nation’s highest values.’” To that end, he believes that he is “keeping our borders secure, enforcing our laws, and staying true to our values and principles.”
In other words, Secretary Mayorkas’ job is not to keep illegal aliens from entering our country. His job is to accept and process “unaccompanied children,” “families” and “refugees” as fast as possible.
Republicans in Congress have made some effort to stop this invasion. House Resolution 582, filed in August of 2021, calls for the impeachment of Secretary Mayorkas for “fail(ing) to faithfully uphold his oath and…instead presid(ing) over a reckless abandonment of border security and immigration enforcement, at the expense of the Constitution and the security of the United States. Secretary Mayorkas has violated, and continues to violate, this requirement by failing to maintain operational control of the border and releasing hundreds of thousands of illegal aliens into the interior of the United States.” Further, “Secretary Mayorkas’s actions have made the border less secure and encouraged aliens to enter the United States illegally, instead of taking actions to maintain operational control of the border. His actions have subverted the will of Congress and the core tenants of the Constitution.”
Obviously, this impeachment didn’t gain much traction while Congress was in Democrat hands. In fact, the “will of Congress” was more divided, with Democrats attempting to grant amnesty to illegal aliens throughout 2021. As described by Fox News; “When campaigning in 2020, then-candidate Joe Biden promised…a massive immigration reform bill…(a)lmost immediately on entering office, the Biden administration released a sweeping immigration proposal – which would eventually become the U.S. Citizenship Act of 2021…(t)he bill…quickly died as it became clear the measure, which included minimal border security provisions, did not have any Republican support…Democrats looked to include various amnesty provisions in the Build Back Better Act that they were seeking to pass via the budget reconciliation process – and would therefore only need 50 votes. Democrats put forward a variety of proposals, from a pathway to citizenship for ‘essential workers’ to updating a decades-old registry. All plans were rejected by the Senate parliamentarian for being inappropriate for a budget bill.”
The dream of amnesty for illegal aliens seemed to have slumbered for most of 2022. However, now that the midterm elections have been concluded, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) has recently resurrected the concept; “The only way we’re going to have a great future in America is if we welcome and embrace immigrants, the Dreamers and all of them, because our ultimate goal is to help the Dreamers but to get a path to citizenship for all 11 million or however many undocumented there are here.”
Thankfully, don’t expect an Amnesty Bill anytime soon out of the new Republican-controlled House. In a tweet last October, the New Speaker of the House, Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) said “Amnesty is a nonstarter. It won’t be taken up by a House Republican majority. Our border crisis is the worst in history and the only immigration plan should be to secure the border and stop illegal immigration.”
Instead, what we can expect are more serious efforts to impeach Secretary Mayorkas. According to CNN, “’Mayorkas deserves (impeachment) for sure, because we no longer have a border,’ said Republican Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio, a McCarthy ally who is in line to chair the powerful House Judiciary Committee, which oversees impeachment proceedings…(a)dded Rep. Lauren Boebert of Colorado, a freshman GOP firebrand who has already endorsed impeachment articles for both Biden and Mayorkas: ‘Secretary Mayorkas should be a priority.'”
Will the Republican-majority House move forward with an impeachment of Alejandro Mayorkas? That all depends on whether a majority of Republican legislators think the Secretary should be allowed to continue “making progress” on President Biden’s plan.
For the sake of our nation, the answer to this question needs to be yes.
Judge John Wilson (ret.) authored two books on illegal immigrati