Central America could be hit hard if US sends back illegal immigrants because of Biden's border chaos
Greg Abbott pushes back at KJP over border crisis: She is 'uninformed'
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott on the ongoing fight with the federal government and says Texas has the right to protect its border
The U.S. Supreme Court just ruled 5-4, to lift a lower court’s injunction preventing Biden administration officials from removing concertina wire the state of Texas erected on the border with Mexico to slow the rush of would-be immigrants. The court has yet to rule on the merits of the case, so in the meantime, the invasion continues.
President Joe Biden’s border crisis started even before he was sworn into office in January 2021, with illegal immigrants rushing the U.S.-Mexico border in anticipation of Biden’s promised lax border enforcement.
And who could blame the would-be migrants? Then-candidate Biden promised to not build "another foot" of Trump’s border wall while suggesting that those seeking asylum should "surge to the border."
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As a result, the estimated population of illegal aliens in America has soared from 14.5 million at the end of President Donald Trump’s term of office in 2020 to 16.8 million in 2023. This year, the rate of illegal entries into the U.S. is on pace to hit 3 million with about 1 million of those likely to be released by the Border Patrol — and this doesn’t include an additional 600,000 or so "got-aways" who elude the Border Patrol, many of whom are drug runners, criminals and potential terrorists.
Immigrants wait to be processed at a U.S. Border Patrol transit center after they crossed the border from Mexico on December 20, 2023, in Eagle Pass, Texas. A late-year surge of migrants crossing the U.S. southern border overwhelmed U.S. immigration officials. (John Moore/Getty Images)
By the time Biden completes four years in office, the illegal immigrant population in America will have increased by 4 million, a stunning 28% increase — one in every 85 people in the U.S. will be an illegal immigrant who arrived under Biden’s term.
There is a chance those numbers might be a bit smaller, should Biden agree to the Mexican president’s audacious immigration extortion offer. Knowing that American voters are overwhelmingly displeased with the breakdown on the border and knowing that Biden’s reelection prospects are in jeopardy, President Andrés Manuel López Obrador laid out three demands in exchange for slowing the flow into the U.S.
Those included $20 billion in U.S. aid for corrupt and authoritarian Latin American governments, dropping sanctions on Cuba and Venezuela and the authorization for 10 million migrants from south of the border to work in America.
Should this gambit fall short in boosting Biden to a second term, what happens next?
A Republican president will likely order a strong crackdown on the border, as well as significantly boost deportations of illegal immigrants, including those who falsely claimed asylum. As a result, a significant portion of those who are illegally living in the U.S. will be returned to their countries of origin.
Of the 18.4 million people in the U.S. illegally, just over half originated from Latin America, including Caribbean nations such as Haiti. About 5.4 million of these are non-Mexican illegal immigrants, mostly from Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Venezuela and Haiti.
Biden put Vice President Kamala Harris in charge of solving the border crisis. In 2021, Harris described climate change as a prime cause of Central American migration. Since the vice president kicked off the effort to address the "root cause" of illegal immigration, illegal immigration has only increased.
But rather than climate change driving immigration, a lack of investment caused by crushing levels of corruption is the most likely culprit for driving people to make the trek north.
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Transparency International publishes an annual corruption index. It notes that "Corruption undermines governments’ ability to protect people and erodes public trust, provoking more and harder to control security threats." Of the six nations in the Western Hemisphere that send America the most immigrants, illegal and legal, El Salvador ranks 116 of 180 nations for corruption; Mexico, 126th; Guatemala, 150th; Honduras, 157th; Haiti, 171st; and Venezuela, a stunning 177th.
With economic opportunity lacking in these corrupt nations, especially in the poorer Latin American nations, if the 5.4 million non-Mexican Latin Americans are returned home, the full consequences of Biden’s border crisis will be felt in unexpected ways. For instance, Guatemala could see a more than doubling of the nation’s ranks of the unemployed.
By the time Biden completes four years in office, the illegal immigrant population in America will have increased by 4 million, a stunning 28% increase — one in every 85 people in the U.S. will be an illegal immigrant who arrived under Biden’s term.
Without a comprehensive plan, the pending wave of deportations could have a destabilizing effect on the Western Hemisphere — something that China may seek to amplify through the social media platforms they directly control, such as TikTok, as well as other means of delivering propaganda.
As China ramps up its effort to bend the Indo-Pacific to its will, it will seek to have a free hand to intimidate its neighbors. Forcing America to focus on chaos in its own back yard would be a natural component of China’s war plans.
Biden’s border crisis is a direct national security threat.
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Chuck DeVore is a vice president with the Texas Public Policy Foundation, was elected to the California legislature, is a retired U.S. Army lieutenant colonel, and the author of the new book, "Crisis of the House Never United."
