Border Crossings Spike Again, Both Sides Call for Biden to Act

New numbers show border crossings are spiking once again, resulting in some Democrats now calling the situation a crisis and urging President Biden to act.  

August arrests along the U.S. southern border nearly doubled those in June, and a record number of families were apprehended. 

Historically, July and August see a dip in border crossings due to the high temperatures, but that’s not the case this year as summer border apprehensions rose more than 30% for two consecutive months. 

“Just during this summer alone, we’ve already had dozens of migrants die out in the desert who have succumbed to heat exhaustion,” claimed Deputy Chief Justin De La Torre of the Tucson Sector Border Patrol. 

Torre said they’re encountering people crossing from all over the world. 

“Some of the countries that we see most frequently are from folks from Ecuador, Senegal, Mauritania, Egypt,” he explained. 

According to preliminary data from the CBP obtained by The Washington Post, border patrol officers made 177,000 arrests in August, up from more than 132,000 in July, and 99,000 in June.  More than half of those 177,000 August arrests involved families, an all-time high that exceeded the record for families crossing set in May 2019. 

“The increase in the number of families arriving is really a reflection of Title 42 which banned asylum for family units for really the last two and a half three years so that being rescinded now, we have this backlog of people who you know, want to migrate and now they’re finally eligible to at least make you know the attempt to enter,” said David Bier of the CATO Institute. 

Bier told CBN News many of the family units come from the northern triangle of Central America.

“The administration has created a regulation that says if you cross illegally you’re not going to receive asylum,” explained Bier. “That message is not being heard in Central America. The message that they’re hearing is that you will be released if you cross the border illegally.” 

In places like New York City, which has received an estimated 100,000 migrants in the last 15 months, Democratic leaders are calling for Biden to do something.  

“The Biden-Harris administration and Congress must come up with a real solution; the United States Department of Homeland Security must be part of that solution,” said New York Mayor Eric Adams (D) at a recent rally. “We must ensure our newest Americans can work lawfully and build stable lives.”

Adams recently hosted a rally with asylum seekers where he called on the federal government to step up by expediting work authorization and re-opening a closed jail to house migrants. 

“It is mandatory that this government, on a national level, respond to this fight,” he added. 

Bier told CBN News the federal government should make sure anyone being released into the U.S. can legally work and support themselves.

“That’s the thing that’s driving New York City and these other towns and cities just crazy is the fact that you know, you have these border patrol releases. They don’t know who’s going to be released. They don’t know how many, and they don’t know when,” he explained. “Then they show up and there’s no way for them to support themselves. It’s just not the way that our immigration system should work.”

At a recent press conference, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre defended the way the administration has handled the situation at the southern border.

“The president has done more to secure the border, to deal with this issue of immigration than anybody else,” said Jean-Pierre. “He really has.”

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