Biden's Bad Immigration Policy Impacting West Texas

MIDLAND, TX — President Joe Biden’s policies have created a new crisis at the Texas-Mexico border and leaders of counties and municipalities in the region fear their jurisdictions will soon pay the price. Since taking office, Biden has signaled that the harsh Trump-era border security policies are being loosened. Among the actions the new administration has taken are:

• Ordered an immediate stop to the construction of the border wall
• Signaled early on that the administration intends to introduce a more open immigration system
• Preserved the executive order to protect “Dreamers” who arrived in the U.S. or were born in the U.S. to illegal immigrants
• Working to undo Trump’s policy that tightened the qualifications of a “public charge” rule that applies to immigrants likely to rely on U.S. government welfare programs.
• Offered thousands of Venezuelans “Temporary Protected Status.”
• Ended the so-called Muslim ban that forbad any travel, and certainly immigration, from specific Middle Eastern countries.
• Is currently unwinding the Trump “Remain in Mexico” policy where illegal immigrants who claim asylum or other immigration claims wait on the other side of the border in Mexico awaiting federal administrative court hearings and decisions about each person’s case.
• Instead of continuing the “Remain in Mexico” policy, the Biden administration is already releasing migrants inside the U.S.
• On Friday, the federal HHS and Department of Homeland Security announced the termination of a 2018 cross-agency agreement that would allow detaining illegal immigrants on the U.S. side who arrive to foster migrant children.

Longer term, Biden has told congress it is his desire is to overhaul the nation’s immigration system to make it easier for who are now asylum-seekers to enter the U.S. by expanding pathways for foreign workers, enhancing immigration for entire family units, and by cutting the teeth out of federal immigration enforcement by practically eliminating the threat of mass deportations.

The announced changes in policy and promises of more changes supportive of illegal immigration have encouraged a flood of immigrants northward, some starting their journeys as far south as Colombia and Venezuela. At both ends of the Darién Gap, a 60-mile no-man’s land of marshes, jungle, and mountains, combat reporter Michael Yon reported seeing immigrants from countries as far away as India entering the jungle for the dangerous journey. The Darién Gap has no prepared roadway surface transitioning through it, as construction of that portion of the Pan American Highway, originally designed to connect Colombia at the south end to Panama at the north, was halted twice, once in the 1970s, and a second time in the 1990s due to complaints from environmentalist organizations.

Yon reported that U.S. Customs and Border Patrol officers were in Panama watching the trickle of migrants emerging from the jungle headed north. His expectation is the number of migrants from every country in the world will soon be trekking through the Darién headed to the U.S., including from Asia, Africa, Middle East, Cuba, other Caribbean countries such as Haiti, in addition to the South American countries. Parents with kids enter the Colombia side; sometimes only the kids emerge on the Panama side. The parents were murdered somewhere inside the lawless jungle, Yon said.

The number of unaccompanied migrant children crossing the Texas-Mexico border has exploded since the beginning of the year. Sunday morning, Buzzfeed News reported there are more than 4,200 in short-term holding facilities, up 31 percent since early last week. The CBP isn’t equipped to house children and is required by federal policy to transfer custody of those children to the HHS within three days.

Over the weekend, the Biden administration informed congress via the Department of Health and Human Services that an Emergency Intake Site for unaccompanied migrant children will open in Midland. The facilities on the border are too overcrowded. Congressman August Pfluger said the federal government is opening the facility without any prior coordination with state and local authorities. The Midland Reporter-Telegram reported 1,000 children will be housed in their county. 

According to CBS News the facility in Midland is a former “man camp” for oil field workers located outside the city limits in the county. Governor Greg Abbott confirmed the opening of the facility on the Maria Bartiromo show on Fox News on Sunday, adding that the news was a Saturday surprise. CBS7 reported that Midland Mayor Patrick Payton along with City and Midland County officials are meeting Monday to discuss the issue.

Elsewhere, the number of victims of human trafficking are impacting all areas in the region. Last week, the Texas DPS was involved in high-speed chases down I-10 in Kimble and Edward counties where dozens of arrests were made. Pfluger told the MRT that in Junction, 20 migrants were detained last week. He said some migrants have been transported north for detention in San Angelo as well.

Pfluger said that the best he and his Republican colleagues can do is help expose the results of the Biden administration’s bad policy.

“(Migrants) have been given false hope by new administration that our borders are now open,” Pfluger told the MRT. There is no fear of criminal prosecution, he added. “The whole situation is terrible. We are mounting as much pressure as we can against the administration.”

“Our border is in crisis. President Biden’s rhetoric and policies are undeniably incentivizing illegal mass migration. His refusal to acknowledge and properly respond to the crisis is overwhelming border states like Texas and putting the interior of the U.S. at even more risk of human trafficking as well as drug cartel and gang-related crimes,” Pfluger said to us.

Pfluger is joining House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, Congressman Tony Gonzales (CD-23) along with Republican leaders of Homeland Security subcommittees for a tour of border security facilities in El Paso on Monday, March 15 to raise more awareness.

Photo Above: A file photo from 10/16/2020 of dozens of illegal immigrants detained by the Del Rio Sector of the CBP.