The Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) says that the measures that U.S. President Joe Biden has taken to address the southern border crisis are not working.
The group tweeted on Thursday:
The Biden administration’s new “border enforcement measures” have not succeeded in curbing record levels of illegal immigration, they’ve just rerouted much of the flow through legal ports of entry.
According to FAIR’s website, it is a non-partisan, public-interest organization that focuses on immigration policies.
“FAIR evaluates policies, seeking out solutions that help reduce the negative impact of uncontrolled immigration on the nation’s security, economy, workforce, education, healthcare, and environment,” the group states.
The numbers
FAIR supports its contention – that Biden’s border new border measures are merely “rerouting . . . the flow” of illegal immigration – with the new immigration numbers that have just been released by U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP).
These numbers show that, in the month of February, the CBP had 212,266 total encounters with illegal aliens.
That’s a huge figure which is in line with some of the biggest numbers on record. December 2022, for example, was the worst month on record with 251,487 encounters.
It is figures like these – and the negative press that he received as a result – that prompted Biden to finally take action to address the southern border crisis. He ostensibly did so by recently visiting the southern border for the first time in his presidency and by putting forth a plan to increase border enforcement.
Critics, at the time, argued that this plan was a shell game, designed to artificially deflate the illegal immigration numbers. And, FAIR is arguing that this is exactly what is going on.
“It’s just being rerouted”
In total, the CBP did have 212,266 total encounters with illegal aliens. But, thanks to Biden’s new border measures, this figure is being artificially deflated to about 129,000.
Dan Stein, president of FAIR, explained the situation, saying:
While boasting that “only” 128,877 migrants were encountered by Border Patrol entering between ports of entry in February, OFO [Office of Field Operations] encountered 83,389 illegal aliens, and allowed many to enter the country under the administration’s expansive and illegal use of parole authority.
Accordingly, Stein referred to Biden’s measures as a blatant attempt “to deceive the American public into believing they have illegal immigration under control.”
In other words, it looks as though the critics were, once again, correct.
Biden’s border measures were not meant to actually address the southern border crisis but to make it look as though Biden is addressing the southern border crisis. He’s not.
