Since President Joe Biden took office, the White House and its allies have insisted that there is nothing to see at the southern border.
CBS News, April 2, 2023. “Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas won’t call immigration at southern border a crisis.“
USA Today, March 27, 2021. “White House says migrant situation ‘not a crisis’ as Biden’s border czar Roberta Jacobson heads to Mexico.”
CNN, April 19, 2021. “White House backtracks after Biden calls border situation a ‘crisis’.“
Republicans started this hearing with hyperbole and posturing, saying President Biden created the worst border crisis in American history. That’s not about oversight; it’s about stoking the fears of immigrants and asylum-seekers. So today, I asked Border Patrol for the truth. pic.twitter.com/Wmz66s5cpx
— Congressman Maxwell Alejandro Frost (@RepMaxwellFrost) February 7, 2023
Republicans: You cannot actually alter reality with your lies. You cannot make there be a border crisis by saying there is one. You cannot make the economy be in a recession by saying it is. You cannot make Biden and Democrats “the real authoritarians” by saying we are.
— Andrew Wortman
(@AmoneyResists) September 5, 2022
(@AmoneyResists) Politico spends 3 weeks sensationalizing a fake border crisis, then gives Chad Wolf—an architect of family separation—a little free publicity piece for his new consulting firm.
Swampy shit. pic.twitter.com/HQkV6ZZhhf
— Sawyer Hackett (@SawyerHackett) March 24, 2021
Love midterm years where shoveling more money at law enforcement and solving a fake border crisis get ten times more space than the all-out assault on voting rights.
— Jared Yates Sexton (@JYSexton) March 2, 2022
Fake outrage. Fake border crisis. Fake military service. Fake persecution. Just more of the same. I’m fucking tired of these fake ass fucks and I can’t wait to vote them all out this election and every election. https://t.co/d9EkDm4TNk
— Mueller, She Wrote (@MuellerSheWrote) October 7, 2022
The “border crisis,” they said, was a racist, Republican conspiracy theory meant to whip voters into a frenzy.
Salon, March 29, 2021. “GOP’s invented ‘border crisis’ is just a political distraction, immigration activists say.“
The Baltimore Sun, April 1, 2021. “Republicans are fabricating the border crisis.“
MSNBC, April 21, 2022. “GOP has a weird habit of debunking its own ‘open borders’ claims.“
Texas Observer, February 6, 2023. “RIGHT-WING REPS PROMOTE RACIST CONSPIRACY THEORIES IN ‘BORDER CRISIS’ HEARING.”
Newsweek, March 30, 2021. “No, There’s No Border Crisis. Republicans Are Perpetuating Another Big Lie.“
Vice, October 21, 2022. “The GOP Is Manufacturing a Moral Panic Over Fentanyl Smuggling.”
Tucson.com, March 28, 2021. “Investigative commentary: Signs show border panic is overblown, politically motivated.“
The New Republic, April 17, 2022. “Republicans’ Midterm Play: Scare Up Another Border Crisis.“
The Guardian, March 19 2021. “Is there a crisis at the border? Advocates in Texas say it’s ‘political manipulation‘.”
Politifact, July 28, 2021. “US-Mexico border not ‘wide open,’ most people trying to enter US are turned away.“
ABC’s Martha Raddatz: “You talk about open borders, I don’t think I’ve ever heard President Biden say, we have an open border come on over, but people I have heard people say it are you, former President Trump, Ron DeSantis, that message reverberates in Mexico and beyond…” pic.twitter.com/kORhsTMSko
— Kevin Tober (@KevinTober94) December 18, 2022
As Americans started to see through the sham, fact-checkers were quick to explain how actually the situation is more complex than it seems.
Associated Press, March 7, 2023. “Plunge in border crossings could blunt GOP attack on Biden.“
NPR, February 1, 2023. “In first GOP-led hearing about the border, witnesses paint sharply different picture.”
CNN, March 24, 2021. “How the current US-Mexico border crisis compares with the peak of the Trump era in 2019.“
The Daily Beast, February 19, 2023. “Biden’s Plan to End the Border Crisis Is Already Working.“
When Biden visited Arizona in December, the media allowed him to escape talking about the border with the ridiculous assertion that “there are more important things going on” at the border than… the border.
FOX NEWS: Why go to a border state and not visit the border?
BIDEN: Because there are more important things going on. pic.twitter.com/tUIf0DJe4D
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) December 6, 2022
Last week, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told a bald-faced lie about how illegal immigration was down 90 percent under President Biden.
Jean-Pierre: “When it comes to illegal migration, you have seen it come down by more than 90%.”
— Washington Free Beacon (@FreeBeacon) May 1, 2023
In a few moments of clarity, the press and the Biden administration have recognized that there is a crisis—but blamed it on Republicans. Many attempted to point the finger at former president Donald Trump, a tactic with which the Biden administration is quite familiar.
Daily Mail, January 8, 2023. “Karine Jean-Pierre claims Republicans made the border ‘worse’ and Biden ‘inherited a mess’ from Trump as she dismisses criticism of President’s new migration policy.“
NBC News, September 23, 2022. “Border chief says GOP governors are worsening crisis by ‘lying’ to migrants.”
step 1:
Congressional Republicans scream “border crisis,” blaming Democratsstep 2:
some Republicans and Democrats negotiate immigration reform compromisestep 3:
Congressional Republicans kill the compromisehappens over and over, under Democratic and Republican presidents https://t.co/MOu3yiklZx
— John Harwood (@JohnJHarwood) December 16, 2022
But the bill on this smokescreen may finally be coming due. Title 42, a pandemic-era policy that restricted those crossing the border from seeking asylum, is set to expire, and a massive influx of illegal immigrants has gathered at the border in anticipation. These inconvenient facts have made the border crisis harder to hide. President Biden recently sent 1,500 members of the National Guard to the border to try to keep order during the expected surge.
Can we finally call it a crisis?
The post Biden’s Border Crisis Doesn’t Look Very Made Up Now appeared first on Washington Free Beacon.
