New York Post

HELLBENT ON SANCTUARY

- TODD BENSMAN Todd Bensman is a senior national security fellow at the Center for Immigratio­n Studies

AUSTIN, Texas — A liberal media horde is about to follow President Biden and Republican challenger Donald Trump to the Texas border, where they’ll no doubt revel in the absence of even a single actual immigrant illegally crossing the border.

Rest assured that Biden’s Border Patrol and Mexican authoritie­s on both sides of the Rio Grande at Brownsvill­e, where Biden is going, and in Eagle Pass, 300 miles upriver, where Trump plans to visit, will have sanitized those areas for a photo op.

But I have a suggestion for the Washington press corps parachutin­g in for one day on this border crisis: Look up.

Every morning between 9 a.m. and 10 a.m., there is a line of immigrants on the internatio­nal bridge from Piedras Negras to Eagle Pass, waiting to be waved in by US Customs and Border Protection officers.

In Brownsvill­e, there’s a similar line on a pedestrian bridge.

These lines show how Biden is breaking the law.

Parole farce

The migrants there have applied for humanitari­an parole using a phone app called CBP One. It’s a program Biden introduced with no congressio­nal approval, no law, no authorizat­ion.

The president who claims that he can’t act without Congress, and that it’s the legislatur­e’s responsibi­lity to fix the border, is allowing hundreds of thousands of people into the United States — illegally — based on his own whims.

“Parole” was a policy meant to use in emergencie­s on a “case-by-case basis.” If someone shows up at the border with an emergency asylum claim, a fear for their life, some tiny number could be allowed inside the country, then returned when the emergency is over.

But in May 2021, Biden introduced the CBP One app, allowing large numbers of people claiming presumptiv­e emergencie­s to apply online for entry. These aren’t legitimate claims, they are people wanting to come to America to work.

Biden was trying to use this legally questionab­le program to alleviate the large crowds at the border, which were hurting him politicall­y. The app was about fooling the media, not actually limiting migrants.

In two years, 420,000 people from 100 different countries have entered the US using the CBP One app.

The Center for Immigratio­n Stud

ies received those numbers from a Freedom of Informatio­n Act lawsuit that is still ongoing — the administra­tion doesn’t want people to know just how many people it’s letting in this way.

CBP officers on the bridges escort these inadmissib­le aliens every single day at Brownsvill­e and Eagle Pass — two of the eight crossing ports — then release them into the country.

None of these CBP One entrants are ever accounted for to an American public increasing­ly furious about billions in tax money that goes to support border crossers.

And again, there is no legislativ­e basis for this program. Biden just decided to let them in on his own, betting reporters wouldn’t notice.

That was a good bet. Don’t expect any of these campaign reporters accompanyi­ng Biden or Trump to add those 420,000 extra people to the 7.3 million who have crossed the border illegally without the app since Biden took office. Or even report that the real number is more — much, much more.

But wait, there’s more

Biden has let another 320,000 inadmissib­le aliens to fly directly into America from foreign airports under another CBP One mobile phone app scheme. That brings the number to about 8 million entries one way or another since inaugurati­on day.

But that’s still not all of it. To those 8 million, the known “gotaways” must be added. This is a category the government doesn’t publish, immigrants that agents tally by camera, pilots, agent spottings, or tracks in the sand but who were never actually caught.

Those numbers began a historic climb in 2021 once Border Patrol agents were pulled from the line to process in the millions who were crossing and quickly giving themselves up.

Government officials have said the gotaway numbers hit somewhere at or north of 1.8 million since Biden took office, including 860,000 in just 2023, according to a Congressio­nal Budget Office report.

But former Chief Border Patrol Agent Raul Ortiz testified the number is probably 20% higher. So let’s figure another 2 million, conservati­vely.

That brings us to a grand total of 10 MILLION crossers in three years.

That’s the most in the history of just about any nation in modern times. It’s roughly 300,000 people every month since Biden’s inaugurati­on day.

It’s an astounding figure, and no matter how artificial­ly calm things look Thursday when Trump and Biden visit, the president is doing nothing to stop it.

Look up, reporters. The border disaster is happening right in front of you.

 ?? ?? CROSSING OVER: Some migrants cross over from Mexico by bridge with the help of the CBP One app. In two years, 420,000 people from 100 different countries have entered the US using the app.
CROSSING OVER: Some migrants cross over from Mexico by bridge with the help of the CBP One app. In two years, 420,000 people from 100 different countries have entered the US using the app.
 ?? ??
 ?? ??

Newspapers in English

Newspapers from United States