In the last four years, I have written many articles about the brutality and cruelty of the Biden-Harris border policies. The continuation of Trump’s human rights violations under policies like the Migrant Protection Protocols and the Covid 19 Title 42 policy that shut down the entire asylum system only exasperated the already overburdened immigration system. But as we near the 2024 presidential election in the US, Trump’s immigration policies are being touted as “fixing the border.” This is not true.
Donald Trump’s policies created the huge numbers that crossed during the Biden Administration’s first three years.
During the Obama Administration, the Border Patrol experienced some of the lowest levels of illegal crossings in decades. One of the reasons for this was that Obama and his predecessor, George W. Bush, invested in Mexican and Central American security and economic expansion which led to a large decrease in illegal crossings on our southern border. The data shows that the investments from Bush and Obama led to a large decrease in illegal crossings during the Obama Administration.
During Trump’s first year in office, Border Patrol agents apprehended 303,916 people crossing illegally. This was the lowest number of yearly apprehensions since 1972 when the agency had less than 4,000 agents nationwide compared to nearly 20,000 today. Border Patrol’s estimates of those who got away were low as well. While Trump likes to accept responsibility for such low numbers by comically citing his anti-immigrant rhetoric making migrants too scared to cross illegally, the statistical data shows that the Bush and Obama policies of investing in Central American countries was consistent and led to a large decrease in illegal crossings.
But when Trump was president in 2019, illegal crossings jumped from the 2018 lows of 30K-60K crossing illegally per month to over 144,000 in one month. Part of the reason for this increase was that Trump stopped all of the Bush/Obama aid to Central American countries. He stopped funding the programs created to decrease migration. As the data shows, illegal crossings began to rise in April 2017 under Trump.
Additionally, this increase is directly attributed to Trump’s Migration Protection Protocols (aka Remain in Mexico) policy that required asylum seeking families to wait in Mexico for their appointments with CBP at the ports. At the same time, Trump ordered CBP to "meter." Metering at ports limits how many people can apply per day. The San Ysidro, California port of entry suddenly claimed they could only process handfuls of people per day during this time. Yet in April 2022 when over 19,000 Ukranians appeared at the same port, the same CBP staff was able to process roughly over 600 people per day. Many of the Ukrainians did not even have proper documentation to enter. This indicates that during the Trump Administration and CBP officials were metering to cause harm to migrants and not because they were overwhelmed as they claimed.
Trump began the Migration Protection Protocols in January of 2019, and as you can see from the chart, it caused a large increase in illegal crossings. Families waiting for appointments with that never came were being kidnapped, assaulted and ransomed which pushed them to cross illegally to seek safety. Illegal crossings dropped back down a bit from June 2019 until April of 2020 when Covid started but immediately went back up after Trump enacted the asylum shut down through Title 42.
In general, it takes a couple of months to see how policy changes affect migrant traffic on the border. Under Title 42, few could access the immigration system in the “legal way.” As the graph above shows, Title 42 led to record numbers of illegal crossings. The policy continued through three years of the Biden Administration before finally ending. This was because without a chance to enter the US legally, migrants and asylum seekers were pushed to cross illegally. Without the opportunity to present oneself “the legal way,” people who are desperate will take desperate measures.
This fact was proven when Biden ended Title 42 and the numbers of illegal crossers quickly plummeted by half or more. Why? Because the migrants had hope they could apply legally at the ports. I have personally interviewed thousands of migrants and asylum seekers as an agent and as an activist for 30 years. The vast majority will tell you they prefer to cross and be inspected legally than to cross illegally and risk their lives. This simple concept was proven again when Biden introduced the CBP One app. People stopped crossing illegally and tried to apply for inspection. After a few months of again not being able to apply the “legal way" because Biden continued to meter at the ports, the numbers of illegal crossings again increased.
What CBP and Border Patrol agents know as a fact is that if you eliminate the opportunities with which people can legally apply for entry, you inevitably create a push or incentive for people to cross illegally. Trump’s policies created the push needed for many immigrants to cross illegally. Biden’s new policies of penalizing those crossing illegally with bans to legal entry has caused the numbers to go back down, but it remains to be seen if this will be adequate or if families will again turn to risking their lives by crossing in between the ports without inspection.
People have always come to our borders in search of safety and opportunity. This is the reality when you live in the US. The constant talking points given by those of anti-immigrant beliefs is that “they should enter the legal way.” What they do not ever tell the public is that there are few legal ways to enter these days, very few. If there are not legal avenues, then CBP cannot conduct their inspections for national security at the ports and migrants. People are then pushed to cross illegally which leads to overwhelming the Border Patrol with the same inspections that should have been conducted at the ports by CBP.
Trump’s policies created 3 to 4 years of a backlog of people waiting in Mexico and unable to access the legal methods of crossing. The Biden Administration has frankly been digging the asylum system out of the mess created by Trump. Those who came to our borders during Migration Protection Protocols and Title 42 did so partly because Trump stopped programs designed by both parties to decrease migration. When Trump shut down the immigration system, people were pushed to cross illegally. The data clearly shows that Trump's shuttering of the system was the impetus of the higher illegal crossings under the Biden Administration.
If politicians want to increase illegal crossings and prevent CBP from doing inspections, if they want to make the border look out of control, if they want more people with criminal records to enter the country, they just have to close the legal avenues again. If political leaders want to inspect people as they enter, if we want to know why they are here, or if they have criminal records, then the government must provide a system that accomplishes this goal.
This is why the asylum system and immigration system are integral to national security, and why I say a closed border is as dangerous as an open border.