How To Start A Border Crisis

Alicia Nieves – a lawyer with a focus on immigration and national security – recently documented in her article for Compact how open-border activists exploited loopholes from the Obama administration through Trump’s first term and the Biden presidency–ultimately helping produce the Biden border crisis.

The Playbook

First, activists taught migrants how to exploit the asylum system’s “credible fear” process to gain entry into the United States. They then pressured administrations to release non-criminal aliens from detention, especially those traveling with children. Cartels and smuggling organizations quickly adopted the playbook–and illegal encounters surged.

As the system became overwhelmed, authorities began releasing migrants more quickly and issuing work permits so they could earn money while their cases moved through backlogged immigration courts. At the same time, multiple administrations narrowed enforcement priorities to focus almost exclusively on illegal aliens with criminal records.

The Biden Mistake

According to Nieves, the Biden administration did not see these loopholes as the cause of increased illegal immigration–but as the compassionate response to it. So they doubled down on bad ideas. Nieves writes:

“[P]olicymakers adopted an approach centered on managing migration flows rather than attempting to prevent them. Humanitarian processing systems were expanded, detention was deemphasized, and new administrative pathways were developed through which migrants could present claims for entry. At the same time, international organizations–including several funded by USAID–spent billions of dollars across the western hemisphere hiring staff to guide migrants toward the border and, in some cases, providing financial assistance to those making the journey north.”

Proof That Policy Works

The second Trump administration viewed illegal immigration as a symptom of a broken enforcement system. President Trump reinstated deterrence policies immediately upon returning to office, and the border crisis ended almost immediately. The conditions of sending countries did not change overnight–U.S. policy did.

Now Congress Must Act

Administrative actions are temporary by nature. Only Congress can make enforcement reforms durable beyond an election cycle.

Good news on that front this week: Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan told the Republican Policy Summit that the House should revive H.R. 2, legislation that would permanently close these loopholes.

Congress has 301 days left to send it to the president’s desk.