Border Patrol encountered more than 234,000 illegal border crossers in April, according to a court document filed this week. It’s an all-time monthly record, and speaks volumes about what the Biden administration is telegraphing to migrants and the cartels that traffic them. The border is for all intents and purposes open, and everyone is taking full advantage.
But controlling immigration is not only something that’s accomplished at the border. Most of the folks crossing our southern border are coming in search of better economic opportunities—opportunities they have no problem finding. It’s supply and demand, Economics 101. And what it means is that if you want to control the flood of illegal immigrants, you need to make it costly for businesses to hire to them. End the demand, and you’ll staunch the supply.
And yet, the Biden administration is doing the exact opposite. Earlier this year, Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas said in a memo that he was putting an end to workplace immigration raids. Unsurprisingly, illegal immigration began to skyrocket soon after the policy shift was announced last fall, as migrants realized that once they made it into the United States, they’d be able to work under the table with little chance of detention and deportation.
Just a few months after President Biden took office and reversed the Trump-era immigration policies, the southern border was overrun. 2021 saw the highest number of illegal crossings ever recorded, along with a looming humanitarian crisis. 2022 promises to be even worse, with Border Patrol prepping for 18,000 daily migrant encounters—more than double the current rate—starting later this spring.