The Senate is in session this week to move forward with the final form of the COMPETES Act (House version) and the United States Innovation and Competition Act (Senate version). If your Senator is a conferee, you have a phone action on your board.

If not, there are other actions you can take to discourage your members of Congress from expanding immigration.

The worst border surge in history, cont.

Andrew R. Arthur says the numbers can become so large as to lose meaning. If the illegal migrants who have reached the interior since just January 2021 formed their own city, it would be the sixth largest in the United States. The unaccompanied minors would be the 17th-largest school district in the country.

There were more border encounters in March than in any other month in Biden's term (April's numbers have not yet been released).

"We simply have no border left," writes the National Sherriffs' Association in a letter to Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell.

ICE is expecting the historic border surge to triple in numbers and DHS Secretary Mayorkas is privately telling lawmakers that he's worried.

Accommodating a crisis

Betsy McCaughey looks at Biden's plan for the ongoing surge, including "hotel stays, debit cards and cell phones." These are the "alternatives to detention" that Secretary Mayorkas touted on Capitol Hill last week, and he plans on implementing them "on a greater scale" in the coming months.

The courts have ruled that the Biden Administration must enforce the Remain In Mexico program "in good faith," but the participation rate for March was a mere 0.09 percent. At the same time, Biden plans to cut the government's capacity for holding migrants by 25 percent. The plan is to simply release people into the country.

"Essentially abolished" (hat tip, The Washington Post)

Border surges have occurred for decades across multiple administrations that lacked either the will or desire to crack down on illegal employment. Steven A. Camarota looks at what makes the current surge unique:

"Something changed fundamentally at the border around the time President Biden took office. Apprehensions (technically called "encounters") of illegal immigrants at the southern border increased dramatically, primarily among unaccompanied minors and people in family units. The sudden rush at the border was surely caused in large part by President Biden's campaign promises to loosen asylum standards, curtail enforcement, and pass an amnesty. These promises created the reasonable belief among prospective migrants that they would be granted entry at the southern border without a visa. With the ending of Remain in Mexico (which was resumed under court order, but only in a very minor way), the scaling back of Title 42 expulsions in 2022, the decision to release hundreds of thousands of people into the country -- most of whom are "still here" accounting to DHS secretary Mayorkas -- and the suspension of most interior enforcement, the illegal-immigrant population has ballooned....

"....Our new analysis indicates that the number of illegal immigrants increased by more than 1.2 million in just the last year. The public many not know all the details about what's happening, but they are clearly dissatisfied -- and they are right to be. In a very real sense, America has lost control of its borders."

A cruel kind of compassion

Bad news gets worse. FY2021 shattered the record for most border deaths, despite also setting a record for the most border rescues. But the Government Accountability Office concluded in an April report that Customs and Border Protection has been undercounting migrant deaths.

Jonette Christian is aghast, but sees a way out:

"There's nothing progressive about tolerating a status quo that results in sexual assaults, avoidable deaths from exposure, overwhelmed social services and deplorable working conditions for migrants -- and lower wages and higher rents for Americans and legal immigrants already here. The Biden administration can avert a catastrophe this summer simply by introducing common sense measures, like universal E-Verify, to deter illegal hiring and migration."

Who knew that open borders would...

...endanger migrants smuggled in locked railcars?

...endanger migrants riding in cars with American teenagers? Smugglers coach the teen drivers to be aggressive on the roads. "They're told that if they go fast enough we're going to stop pursuing them," a border patrol agent tells Reuters.

...endanger migrants trying to climb the border wall?

...overwhelm communities? The administration's border strategy is to accommodate the surge, not stop it, but they are failing. Anna Giaritelli describes the situation in Southern border towns:

"Eagle Pass, a town of 29,000 residents working to overcome its reputation as one of the most poverty-stricken places in America, relies on a single nonprofit organization to aid migrants and help them move away from the border. The organization, Mission: Border Hope, was founded by Becky Baxter-Ballou and Bruce Ballou a decade ago with the intent of helping low-income families, but when migrants began crossing the international bridge seeking asylum several years ago, they started helping meet the hunger, clothing, and shelter needs of those entering their community.

"'I remember the day it started. Customs showed up with probably 60 people on a bus. We thought, 'Oh no. What are we going to do?'"

"....Mission: Border Hope operated for years out of a small church capable of holding 100 people. But as the Border Patrol began apprehending more people crossing last year, more people were released to the organization each day. In recent weeks, more than 500 people have been released to Mission: Border Hope daily.

"'Border Patrol -- I've asked them, 'What are you going to do with the people you release?' And they always say, 'Mayor, if you don't have a [nongovernmental organization], I'm just going to drop them off at the gas station,'" said Salinas, who is an independent. "So that would be even worse, right, having 500 people that are just in the streets."

...be so unpopular?

Half of voters believe the Biden administration is "purposefully encouraging illegal immigration." Only 35 percent approve of the president's handling of immigration overall, and only 23 percent approve of his handling of the southern border.

Silvio Canto, Jr. has been speaking with Hispanic Americans in border towns and says "the chaos on the border is real":

"Go down to Del Rio, Texas, with a population of 30,000, and ask about 10,000 Haitians on the other side of the border. It's intimidating, and none of these border towns can absorb so many people.

"It does not mean that Hispanics are divorcing from Democrats. It just means they need a separation from ideas that just don't make any sense, in the words of Ruy Texeira."

The editorial board at Issues & Insights opines: "this may well be the issue that decides the 2022 elections. An unguarded, unprotected border endangers lives and economic well-being."

Once private concerns of Democrats in Congress are starting to become public. Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney, the leader of the House Democratic caucus campaign arm, according to Politico, "delivered emotional remarks in a private meeting Tuesday about how Biden's border crossing policy has become a major issue in virtually every battleground race."

Biden's border policies have left vulnerable Democrats in a difficult position: either publicly oppose the administration's approach, or say nothing. Andrew Sullivan says most Democrats - most of whom were outraged daily by the smaller 2019 surge - are understandably quiet:

"...the Biden position, fully articulated, is that the border is in crisis because we are not allowing as many undocumented migrants in as swiftly as we could. Their goal is to maximize immigration, end Covid restrictions (but not for citizens on airplanes), and stop processing migrants outside the United States. Biden is also set on ending Title 42 very soon, a border measure that gave the feds authority to keep out migrants temporarily because of Covid. When hundreds of thousands pour over the border, will the Democrats fight back by celebrating the huge influx? Well I guess they can try. It would clarify the actual debate."

Mark Penn, pollster and advisor to President Clinton, believes the issue will impact the 2024 presidential election:

"America's voters are not merely unhappy with their political leadership, but awash in fears about economic security, border security, international security and even physical security. Without a U-turn by the Biden administration, this fear will generate a wave election like those in 1994 and 2010, setting off a chain reaction that could flip the House and the Senate to Republican control in November, and ultimately the presidency in 2024..."

Worker power, loose borders: pick one (hat tip, Oren Cass)

Amidst all of this, the House-passed COMPETES Act calls for large increases in immigration. The bill must now be merged with its Senate counterpart which does not include the immigration increases. Please visit your action board to find opportunities to help keep immigration expansion out of the final bill.

Thank you for all that you do,