A “closed border” does not mean people are not illegally crossing. It simply means the asylum system is closed.
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Two days after Donald Trump was sworn in as president of the United States for a second time, he declared a national emergency at the southern border. He based this order on his claim that the Biden administration had intentionally allowed millions of undocumented migrants into the country illegally through its immigration policies. Trump et al stated that Biden’s policies encouraged illegal crossings.
Conveniently left out of this theory and most reporting was that Title 42 was Trump’s policy. It shut down the asylum system during the last ten months of Trump’s first administration and the first three years of the Biden administration. The increased illegal crossings began immediately once Trump closed the asylum system in March of 2020 and continued during the next administration. It was only during the last year (2023) that we saw record decreases in illegal crossings and only after Biden finally terminated Title 42 and the asylum system was partially opened back up.
Biden’s immigration policies were Trump’s policies for the first three years. What caused illegal crossings during this time to increase was what always causes this statistic to increase, the closing of the asylum system.
In the lead up to the 2024 election, Trump often called the consequences of his Title 42 policy the “greatest invasion in history.” Ukraine and many other countries throughout human history, or for that matter any sane and rational person, would rightly disagree with that assessment. This “invasion” was simply four years of refusing to process asylum seekers backing up the system because he closed it. Forty-eight days after declaring the national emergency, he suddenly declared the “invasion” over, ignoring the year of decreasing illegal crossings under Biden. Yet, we still have a full government response to this “invasion” that is no longer. This brought back memories of when former President George W. Bush took the country to war with Iraq over fake intelligence and swiftly declared “Mission Accomplished” on the deck of the USS Abraham Lincoln after only forty-two days later.
Trump, his administration, republicans, right-wing media outlets and even the US Border Patrol are all lying to Americans when they say the border is “closed” under Trump just as they were lying when they claimed it was “open” under Biden. Similar to how they lied to Americans about only targeting criminal migrants for mass deportations centered around their chosen definition of “criminal,” a “closed border” does not mean what many Americans think it does. If you are a regular reader of my work, you know I have stated that immigration hawks consider all those who entered illegally to be “criminals.” It only took the president’s Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt a week to admit to this.
When immigration hawks say they want a “closed border,” they simply mean they want a closed asylum system. They will argue that they are revamping the asylum system; claim that they are making it more secure, more fair. But in reality, they are actually going to make the asylum system only available to the wealthy, mostly white, mostly educated allies of this administration. There will be no asylum for those who are tired, who are poor. No asylum for “the huddled masses yearning to breathe free.”
The last five years has taught Americans what every Border Patrol agent already knew: closing or severely limiting the legal avenues with which people can apply for asylum directly causes illegal crossings to increase. Trump’s policies created the “invasion.” CBP’s own data makes it clear:
It took the last administration three years just to partially reopen the asylum system shuttered from Trump’s Title 42, and the difference in illegal crossings was seen immediately. For example: in May and December of 2021, May of 2022 and April of 2023, Biden slowly opened the asylum system up to Haitian refugees. Each and every time an avenue was opened up for people to apply legally and be inspected, the majority of asylum seekers chose to be inspected and enter legally. This is not an anomaly. This is standard, normal results: limit legal avenues with which people can apply for asylum and they will cross illegally, create more legal avenues and most will submit themselves to inspection.
During the last four years we have heard nothing but how the border was “open” from Trump and his allies. But if the border was “closed” under Trump because of Title 42 in his first term and is once again “closed” under his second term because he once again closed the asylum system under national emergency orders, why was it “open” for Biden when the asylum system was actually “closed” under Title 42 for three of his four years?
During the Biden administration, Trump and his allies were the only ones telling those considering coming to our country for asylum that they could because the border was “open.” Within the Border Patrol, agents and management preach that this sort of rhetoric causes a “pull factor.” If I or any pro-immigration person started claiming the border was “open” under Trump, I imagine the old Border Tsar would threaten arrests for “encouraging illegal entries.” He would not be legally correct, but he would threaten.
Of course, since Trump has once again taken office, his allies cries of “open borders” have ceased. Exclamations of praise and even $200 million of taxpayer money has been spent to make television ads thanking their Dear Leader for stopping the “invasion” that actually stopped when Biden ended Trump’s Title 42 policy. Crossings further decreased when Biden created bans for crossing illegally and seeking asylum. Although I disagree with these bans and Trump continues them, they have caused a further decrease in illegal crossings. There is no denying this when looking at the statistics. Biden’s policies were the same as Trump’s save that he partially opened the only legal avenue to enter the country and that was the reason the statistics improved.
Trump must claim victory now because as everyone knows and the data shows, illegal crossings will go back up. In general, it takes migrants a few months to change tactics. They must give up on the CBP One App which is now a turn yourself in app that I do not recommend people use and save money to be smuggled into the country. They must prepare to evade detection because they can no longer cross illegally and still claim asylum. They are making their way to the most desolate and dangerous areas to cross. I expect that we will also see an increase of unaccompanied children being dropped on the US side.
There are no legal avenues with which to cross right now. No inspections, no way other than through the deserts, mountains and the Rio Grande River filled with buoys intent on drowning victims, razor wire slicing through children’s arms. Many will die. The asylum system is closed right now, but the asylum system is just one part of the border. The idea that the southern border can be “open” or “closed” is illogical and simply not true. In between the ports of entry where the illegal entries occur without inspection is just as “open” as it was during Biden’s administration.
Unfortunately, the Border Patrol is in charge of this area and collecting these statistics. This is the same Border Patrol that ordered agents to not count apprehensions when it benefited them and then gave agents who complained promotions to recant their statements, that fraudulently inflates agent assault statistics to make it appear as if migrants are more violent than they are, lied to Americans about how long they had been separating children, continues to lie to the public about their secret and illegal coverup teams, and is now suddenly refusing to report “gotaways” from its agents as it did during the last administration. (“Gotaways” are the number of migrants seen on cameras and guesstimates of shoe prints left on border roads. These numbers are never accurate and reflect political biases of the agency’s management.)
The border itself is as “open” as it was during the last four years, and migrants will once again start crossing illegally because they have no other options. Whether or not Border Patrol, who has thrown away their oath to the Constitution for worshipping a golden Trump will tell us the truth or not remains to be seen. My bet is that they will cover for Trump and falsify statistics as they have in the past.
Since the United States created its borders, people have been coming to seek entry for a variety of reasons. Americans overwhelmingly state that they want a fair and orderly system. With climate change, our stripping of resources within many countries, the global destabilization of far right authoritarians, we will continue to see more people coming to our borders. Immigration will continue to divide and destabilize us simply because we allow it. We will continue to see politicians of every stripe using the suffering of these families for their own political and monetary benefit.
An open and functioning asylum system allows us to inspect the majority of those seeking entry. It takes an illegal human smuggling market created and fed by our restrictionist immigration policies away from the cartel. It would help us know who and why people are coming here and increase security. We cannot inspect people who cross illegally adequately or sometimes at all. A combination of robust and humane inspections at the ports with enforcement for those who are trying to avoid inspection is what is required for a nation like ours.
The asylum system is essential to national security, because you cannot “close” the border.