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Biden's Border Crisis Doesn't Look Very Made Up Now

Immigrants cross the Rio Grande / Reuters
May 10, 2023

Since President Joe Biden took office, the White House and its allies have insisted that there is nothing to see at the southern border.

CBS News, April 2, 2023. "Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas won't call immigration at southern border a crisis."

USA Today, March 27, 2021. "White House says migrant situation 'not a crisis' as Biden's border czar Roberta Jacobson heads to Mexico."

CNN, April 19, 2021. "White House backtracks after Biden calls border situation a ‘crisis’."

 

The "border crisis," they said, was a racist, Republican conspiracy theory meant to whip voters into a frenzy.

 

Salon, March 29, 2021. "GOP's invented 'border crisis' is just a political distraction, immigration activists say."

The Baltimore Sun, April 1, 2021. "Republicans are fabricating the border crisis."

MSNBC, April 21, 2022. "GOP has a weird habit of debunking its own ‘open borders’ claims."

Texas Observer, February 6, 2023. "RIGHT-WING REPS PROMOTE RACIST CONSPIRACY THEORIES IN ‘BORDER CRISIS’ HEARING."

Newsweek, March 30, 2021. "No, There's No Border Crisis. Republicans Are Perpetuating Another Big Lie."

Vice, October 21, 2022. "The GOP Is Manufacturing a Moral Panic Over Fentanyl Smuggling."

Tucson.com, March 28, 2021. "Investigative commentary: Signs show border panic is overblown, politically motivated."

The New Republic, April 17, 2022. "Republicans’ Midterm Play: Scare Up Another Border Crisis."

The Guardian, March 19 2021. "Is there a crisis at the border? Advocates in Texas say it's 'political manipulation'."

Politifact, July 28, 2021. "US-Mexico border not ‘wide open,’ most people trying to enter US are turned away."

 

As Americans started to see through the sham, fact-checkers were quick to explain how actually the situation is more complex than it seems.

 

Associated Press, March 7, 2023. "Plunge in border crossings could blunt GOP attack on Biden."

NPR, February 1, 2023. "In first GOP-led hearing about the border, witnesses paint sharply different picture."

CNN, March 24, 2021. "How the current US-Mexico border crisis compares with the peak of the Trump era in 2019."

The Daily Beast, February 19, 2023. "Biden’s Plan to End the Border Crisis Is Already Working."

 

When Biden visited Arizona in December, the media allowed him to escape talking about the border with the ridiculous assertion that "there are more important things going on" at the border than... the border.

 

Last week, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told a bald-faced lie about how illegal immigration was down 90 percent under President Biden.

 

 

In a few moments of clarity, the press and the Biden administration have recognized that there is a crisis—but blamed it on Republicans. Many attempted to point the finger at former president Donald Trump, a tactic with which the Biden administration is quite familiar.

 

Daily Mail, January 8, 2023. "Karine Jean-Pierre claims Republicans made the border 'worse' and Biden 'inherited a mess' from Trump as she dismisses criticism of President's new migration policy."

NBC News, September 23, 2022. "Border chief says GOP governors are worsening crisis by 'lying' to migrants."

 

 

But the bill on this smokescreen may finally be coming due. Title 42, a pandemic-era policy that restricted those crossing the border from seeking asylum, is set to expire, and a massive influx of illegal immigrants has gathered at the border in anticipation. These inconvenient facts have made the border crisis harder to hide. President Biden recently sent 1,500 members of the National Guard to the border to try to keep order during the expected surge.

Can we finally call it a crisis?