Last month was the worst February on record for illegal immigration into the U.S. — possibly in more ways than one.
The Department of Homeland Security said its agents had encountered more than a quarter-million illegals at the border — 256,000 or so.
That number was up from the previous month, according to The Washington Times. Even though February had two fewer days than January, it saw 13,000 more illegals crossing the border.
If there’s any good news to be found, it’s that neither of the two past months came close to the record-setting 371,000 encounters in December. It’s not great news, but it could be worse.
And speaking of worse, 11 of the illegals taken into custody by federal officials were 11 people on the terrorist watch list.
That’s right: 11. Or about 58 percent of the number of men it took to bring down the Twin Towers on 9/11. In one month. The shortest month of the year, even.
And that’s the number of potential terrorists the feds caught. The number who escaped federal notice cannot, of course, be even guessed at.
Most of the illegals who came to the attention of DHS did so the old-fashioned way: They walked over the border and got caught. The rest arrived at designated border crossings without any authorization to enter the country and demanded entry anyway.
About 42,000 of that later group did so under what the Times described as a “legal iffy ‘parole’ program created by Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas to try to take pressure off Border Patrol agents.”
Should Joe Biden be held criminally responsible for crimes committed by anyone who entered the southern border on his watch?
“Under that program, known as the CBPOne App, migrants can schedule their arrivals at the border and be allowed in,” the outlet explained. “The government also runs another parole program that allows up to 30,000 migrants from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela to preschedule arrivals at airports inside the U.S.”
The point of these programs, according the Customs and Border Protection is to demonstrate that “noncitizens will follow an orderly process when one is available.”
An orderly process, it should be noted, to enter the country illegally by means of processes created by the Biden administration.
One hesitates to wonder what a disorderly process would look like. Actually, we already know, since Jennie Taer of the New York Post shared video of just such an event on social media Thursday.
This is the moment when TX National Guard became overrun by migrants rioting to get across the border here in El Paso today
We were there and saw it all happen. Absolute chaos here. pic.twitter.com/VN6Kf663ie
— Jennie Taer (@JennieSTaer) March 21, 2024
Don’t worry, though, fellow Americans: The Biden administration stepped up and posted a sign to keep the media from taking any more of those uncomfortable videos, so that should be the end of that. (I wish I were kidding about that, but I’m not.)
As House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Mark Green told the Times, the torrent of illegals into the U.S. will not abate while the Biden administration continues to hold open the floodgates — or push them further open, even.
“Despite Secretary Mayorkas finally admitting that there is a border crisis after three years of lying to Congress and the American people, he continues to incentivize unlawful entry into the country with his mass catch-and-release and mass-parole programs,” the Tennessee Republican said.
But hey, at least it’s orderly.
