This Issue: 52% of Americans say U.S. is "experiencing an invasion" along the Southwest border

A surprising new poll from Ipsos/NPR found that a majority of Americans (52%) consider the ongoing border crisis to be an "invasion."

Even more shocking is the fact that a plurality of Democrats call the crisis an "invasion." 41% said that it is either true or somewhat true that the U.S. is "experiencing an invasion," while only one-third of Democrats were willing to say that it's not true.

To no one's surprise, an overwhelming number of Republicans (76%) call the border crisis an "invasion."

While Independents aren't as convinced as Republicans, it's a strong plurality of Independents with 47% calling the crisis an "invasion" compared with just 18% who don't.

The poll results have to be a concern for the Biden Administration given the lack of coverage from mainstream media on the ongoing crisis. In fact, the Washington Post published a story this week on the Ipsos/NPR poll's finding, but didn't publish a story on this week's release of July apprehension statistics.

According to the DHS report, Border Patrol agents made 181,552 apprehensions along the Southwest border in July. While the number doesn't look as bad compared with past months -- it's the third consecutive month with a decline in apprehensions and the lowest number of apprehensions in five months -- the number alone doesn't tell the whole story.

For starters, July is the hottest month of year along the Southwest border and apprehensions tend to be lower with fewer illegal migrants willing to take on the summer heat. Over the six-year period between 2013-2018, apprehensions were higher in August compared to July in five of the six years.

Second, July's totals set a new annual record for border apprehensions with more than 1.8 million apprehensions during the fiscal year. With still two more months to go in FY2022, the Biden Administration is sure to cross the 2 million apprehension threshold.

Third, the number of inadmissible aliens who presented themselves at a port of entry increased by 18.7% in July compared to June. July's number -- 18,424 -- was the second highest number recorded this fiscal year.

August's numbers will be telling. An increase in apprehensions would indicate that the 18-month long crisis is far from winding down.

Summer threat over green cards for unvetted Afghan evacuees

A bipartisan group of six Senators -- Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), Chris Coons (D-Del.), Roy Blunt (R-Mo.), Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), and Lisa Murkowski (R-Ak.) -- has introduced legislation (S. 4787) that would give green cards to more than 100,000 unvetted Afghan evacuees who don't qualify for either refugee status or a special immigrant visa (SIV) program created by Congress specifically for Afghan evacuees.

During last year's U.S. evacuation from Afghanistan, the Biden Administration relocated these Afghan nationals to the United States and granted them an administrative "parole" that protects them from deportation and issued them a work permit and Social Security number.

According to a report from the Department of Defense Inspector General, these unvetted Afghan parolees pose a threat to national security and public safety because they were never vetted by the National Intelligence's National Counterterrorism Center.

To be clear, this group does not include Afghan evacuees who were translators helping U.S. armed forces in Afghanistan. Those individuals qualify for either refugee status or the SIV program. This group of Afghan evacuees were simply able to join one of the U.S. convoys leaving Afghanistan during the chaos.

We're concerned that Congress may look to pass this legislation when they return this fall or try to add it to the spending bill that Congress must pass before the end of September to avoid a government shutdown.

We've posted new actions on your Action Board to send to your Members of Congress. Please send those messages today.

CHRIS Chmielenski NumbersUSA Deputy Director