Border Encounter & Apprehension Numbers Dominate Recent Immigration News Coverage... and for good reason!
Today's commentators - which increasingly characterizes our journalists - have made an artform of reporting events in a way that makes them sound "historic." We have the common sense to realize that technically, every event is unique in at least some way. Nevertheless, a media industry dependent on clicks has quite a bit of incentive to write with urgency.
But when it comes to this story, no inflation of the narrative is necessary. The new border numbers for Fiscal Year 2021 truly are historic.
A headline in The Washington Post blares: "Border arrests have soared to an all-time high, new CBP data shows."
Even that is a clarified version. As The Post notes in a correction at the top of the story:
A previous version of this article incorrectly said that Border Patrol arrests along the Mexico border reached their highest levels since 1986. Historical data shows fiscal year 2021's figure was the highest total ever recorded. The article has been corrected.
The highest figure ever recorded.
...
___
While CBP's site doesn't show the breakdown of the numbers for every year, they do show in chart form how the staggering 1.73 million border encounters adds up by month next to the data from recent years.
Meanwhile, Princeton Policy Advisors are projecting the 2021 calendar year apprehensions to come in between 2.0 - 2.1 million, according to the Washington Examiner.
For additional technical breakdown, media analysis, and historical context, we recommend diving in to Andrew "Art" Arthur's writing on the topic (here and here).
We've been tracking this story all year, because the monthly border numbers have been at crisis levels for awhile. I highly recommend Jeremy Beck's blog from May that explained President Biden's bill to massively increase legal immigration and compiled an impressive array of sources pointing out that President Biden's border policies were driving the border surge.
TV News:
Take less than two minutes to watch this compilation video showing border footage and the seemingly unyielding plan of Democratic elected officials to push for the largest amnesty in history (8+ million people) in the "budget reconciliation" bill:
...
CNN: "1.66m Border arrests set record with more on the way"
Obama's former DHS Secretary Jeh Johnson visits MSNBC's Morning Joe: "You cannot have 200,000 people a month crossing the Southern border"
Biden's Response:
From Politico: "CNN's Harry Enten notes that one big problem for Biden is the gulf between the economic issues Biden is talking about and what voters want him to address. A recent CBS poll found two top issues of neglect: Sixty percent of Americans want Biden to pay more attention to inflation, and 57% want him to pay more attention to the U.S.-Mexico border."
Even cable news media anchors who are not known for criticizing President Biden have made apoplectic comments about the administration's response. CNN's John King couldn't help but describe the President's answer on a border visit question as "horrible."
But what's getting some attention (though not even close to enough) is the Biden administration's assault on workplace enforcement of immigration laws. In a National Review piece titled "Biden Dismantles the Ban on Hiring Illegal Immigrants," Mark Krikorian explains:
The distortion of the labor market caused by the ongoing inflow of illegal workers is a function of their number, not lurid exploitative practices that a relatively small share experience. This ongoing labor-supply shock holds down wages and reduces incentives to recruit and train American workers and invest in labor-saving, productivity-increasing technologies.
This is the context in which the memo bans ICE agents from conducting worksite raids. Of course, under the Biden administration, ICE wasn't doing any raids anyway, but the memo formalizes that policy.
Compare this to the efforts of the previous administration. In 2017, ICE conducted a mass audit of an industrial bakery in Chicago, forcing the employer to let go 800 mostly Mexican illegal aliens, which led to their replacement by American, mostly black, workers....
....Back in 1990, once all the illegal aliens had gotten their amnesty, Senators Ted Kennedy and Orrin Hatch, aided by the National Council of La Raza, tried to renege on the 1986 grand bargain and formally repeal the ban on hiring illegals. They were stopped by Coretta Scott King, who wrote of the 'devastating impact the repeal would have on the economic condition of un- and semi-skilled workers, a disproportionate number of whom are African American and Hispanic.'
But Kennedy is getting the last laugh, as the Biden administration does administratively what he couldn't in Congress.
We look forward to bringing you the latest in immigration journalism next week, and we always appreciate your efforts to stay informed and to share the important, high-quality information that helps the public hold firm against bad immigration reforms while waiting to hold accountable at the ballot box those who are undermining credible enforcement.
...
Have a wonderful week and a happy Halloween!
|
